Leptosols are very shallow soils with minimal development, formed typically on hard rock or highly calcareous materials. They also include deeper soils on gravelly and/or stony parent materials lacking fine earth. With an incomplete solum and/or without clearly expressed pedogenetic features, Leptosols qualify as azonal soils in the pre‐Soil Taxonomy terminology of the USDA. This article is based on the descriptions in FAO (2001 and 2006).
Connotation. Shallow soils; from Gr. leptos, thin.
Synonyms. Leptosols are equivalent to lithosols in many classifications (Soil Taxonomy, FAO for example) and with ‘lithic’ subgroups in other soil groupings. In many systems, rendzina is the name applied to Leptosols on calcareous parent materials, while ranker is used for Leptosols on acid rocks.
Definition. Leptosols have
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either continuous hard rock within 25 cm from the soil surface; or a 10 to 25 cm thick mollic horizon with a thickness between directly overlying material with a calcium...
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Bibliography
FAO, 2001. Lecture notes on the major soils of the world. World Soil Resources Reports, 94. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 334 pp.
FAO, 2006. World reference base for soil resources. World Soil Resources Report 103. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 132 pp.
FitzPatrick, E.A., 1986. An Introduction to Soil Science, 2nd edn., Essex, England/New York: Longman Scientific & Technical/Wiley, 255 pp.
Zech, W. and Hintermaier-Erhard, G. 2008. Soils of the world. Heiderberg, Berlin: Springer-Verlag. 130 pp.
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Ebelhar, S., Chesworth, W., Paris, Q., Spaargaren, O. (2008). Leptosols. In: Chesworth, W. (eds) Encyclopedia of Soil Science. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-3995-9_323
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