General Patterns in the World Geography of Soils

The author, head of the Department of Soil Science and Landscape Geochemistry at Moscow University's Geography Faculty, notes that the traditional zonal concept based on heat belts of the earth no longer accounts satisfactorily for the world distribution of soils. She proposes a typology of geographic soil units based on soil characteristics rather than soil-formation factors: major geochemical fields based on soil reaction and oxidation-reduction potential; and soil sectors within fields, defined in terms of soil classes and families, the history of soil formation, and the energy level of soil processes.