Pedogenesis (from the Greek
pedo-, or
pedon, meaning 'soil, earth,' and
genesis, meaning 'origin, birth') is the science and study of the processes that lead to the formation of
soil (soil evolution) and first explored by the Russian geologist
Vasily Dokuchaev (1846 – 1903), commonly regarded as the father of pedology, who determined in 1883 that soil formed over time as a consequence of climatic,
mineral and biological processes, which he demonstrated using the soil forming equation:
In 1941, the Swiss scientist
Hans Jenny expanded Vasily Dokuchaev equation by adding
topographic relief as a factor and separating the biological processes into the
fauna and
flora coming up with the equation:
Pedogenesis is a branch of
pedology, whose other aspects include the
soil morphology,
classification (
taxonomy) of soils, and their distribution in nature, present and past (soil geography and
paleopedology).
