Developments in the approach to soil studies in Australia

Abstract

The author reviews the basic features of soil studies in Australia from 1927 through to the present time. From the beginning the Russian soil system of the late nineteenth century was adopted and expounded. This system adopts the morphological profile as the basic soil entity. This profile is a dynamic system in equilibrium with its environment and with its associated chemical, physical and agronomic attributes. Its association with many attributes makes morphology an ideal basis for soil classification and for soil mapping; however, the adopted procedures for sampling, and for the analyses of attributes, and for the association of attributes within class populations, are so cursory as to make these claims quite indefensible. Neither can it be claimed that because the soil classes are 'natural' that these are less in need of comprehensive sampling and analyses. The need at present is for the development of a new approach based on efficient sampling and analyses of associations within classes