IDENTIFICATION OF PODZOLIC SOILS (SPODOSOLS) IN UPLAND BRITAIN

Abstract

Criteria for identifying Spodosols are compared with those used to identify podzolic soils in England and Wales, with particular reference to upland soils classed as brown podzolic soils and stagnopodzols. Applied to British soils, the chemical criteria for the spodic horizon seem unduly restrictive, whereas those for the podzolic B entail the identification as brown podzolic of soils with nonilluvial B horizons which may resemble those of Andepts. Some stagnopodzols fail to qualify as Spodosols, but grouping them in different classes at the highest categorical level is considered inadvisable on both genetic and practical grounds.