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I understand that pedology means literally the same thing as soil science. I am also aware that several individual field soil scientists in the United States have preferred being introduced as pedologists to distinguish themselves from agronomists, geologists, geographers, sanitarians and engineers who opportunistically represent themselves as soil scientists, but who in fact have only minimal soil science training and experience. I am also aware that the term soil science doesn't translate as easily as the term pedology, and that some national soil science societies have chosen to call themselves pedological societies.
Despite the above I find very persuasive considerations in support of clarifying pedology as being one of several branches within the soil sciences. Most soil scientists known to me are not enthusiastic with the pedology term as a comprehensive term for soil science. Practice in the pure science aspects of soil chemistry, soil physics and soil minerology are particularly difficult to define as branches of pedology. Furthermore, the ascendancy of the International Union of Soil Sciences ( IUSS) has made soil science the clearly preferable term.
I maintain my certification as a professional soil classifier, so I can certainly appreciate that soil science would not be what it is (a robust discipline independent of geology, agriculture or the biological sciences) if it wasn't for pedology. Pedology is the single most important and defining branch of soil science. I certainly can't fault anyone who defends promoting pedology as the preferred term. I just think that the world has moved on beyond the 1970's and 1980's, a time when pedology quite possibly could have supplanted soil science as the preferred term.
Paleorthid 19:31, 30 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Restored the following to the article: It is one of two main branches of soil science, the other being edaphology Source: Why Study Soils?: E6: Soil science includes two main divisions: edaphology and pedology.
It probably doesn't need to be directly referenced in pedology (soil study) because it is referenced in the edaphology article, the likely place a reader would look for further infomation.
Admittedly, it is common for both terms to be carelessly applied as functionally synonymous. I would reject this as common use. Common error is different from common use. The terms are not synonymous, the importance is critical to understanding soil science, and others have gone to efforts to preserve the distinction. An example:
Edaphic factors are separate from soil forming factors, and the distinction defines a longstanding division between the (complementary) geologic and agronomic/environmental perspectives that soil science extends from. – Paleorthid 05:38, 17 June 2006 (UTC)
Famous pedologists includes Bernard Palissy in the list, but there's no mention of soil in that article. Why no mention of Charles Darwin, the fairly well known author of The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms, with observations on their habits. (1881)? .. dave souza, talk 12:19, 18 December 2006 (UTC)
I believe that edaphology can be placed under pedology and has been placed alongside due to a misconception of what pedology is.
First, Buol et al. (1997) states that "pedology is a collective term used to refer to the combination of the two phases [of soil science] - soil genesis and classification. It has also been used to refer to the combination of the the entire subfield of soil genesis and classification, morphology, survey and interpretations." This authority then lists the following subareas of pedology:
* Soil Genesis * Soil Classification * Soil Morphology * Soil Survey * Soil Geomorphology * Soil Characterization and Analysis * Soil Interpretation
Wikipedia states that Edaphology "is concerned with the influence of soils on living things, particularly plants. The term is also applied to the study of how soil influences man's overall use of the land."
I contend that this Wikipedia statement is a misconception of what pedology encompasses. The soil forming factors climate, organisms, parent material, relief, and time include plant organisms (Jenny, 1994). Jenny (1994) states that plants have an intimate continuing interaction with the soil. Plants, as the most pronounced expression of organisms interaction with soils, should be viewed as a soil forming factor and a subset of pedology; Soil Genesis, Soil Characterization and Analysis, and Soil Interpretation. Plants alter the soil by removing inorganics, contributing to the dissolution of soil minerals by exuding protons and organic acids. Plants also exude other organic compounds to chelate inorganics either for uptake or to sequester them to avoid or mediate uptake. Soil influence on man's overall use is covered in Soil Interpretation, and the Soil Survey is a product that does just that.
Pedology is integrative of other soil science disciplines. A pedologist must be conversant with other sub-disciplines of Soil Science such as Soil Chemistry, Soil Physics, and Soil Biology (sometimes referred to as Soil Microbiology or Soil Ecology). The intensity of study within these sub-disciplines often precludes the time, resources, and understanding of other soil sub-disciplines that is necessary to link the findings of their investagations to the soilscape. However, these sub-disciplines are marked by being allied to one or more of the subareas of pedology, but, again, they often do not rely on the integration if the findings into an understanding of the soilscape for acceptance of the findings by the scientific community. Pedological results always link back to the soilscape. soilman 18:39, 13 July 2007 (UTC)
I have responded here – Paleorthid ( talk) 18:43, 9 December 2007 (UTC)
This page hasnt been edited in quite some while, but I have some interest in trying to help out here; I teach a course called pedology at a Land-Grant university in the US, and have been a professor in soil science for nearly 30 years. Let me give you my understanding, and that of most other soil scientists in the US (if that is of interest to those of you reading this): pedology is one of a number of sub-disciplines within soil science (see the Soil Science Society of America web page: https://www.soils.org/membership/divisions ). It is the "field-based" part of soils in that it deals with describing soil morphology and mapping soils, as well as soil genesis and land use. It is NOT an overall term encompassing ALL of soil science, but is clearly a sub-discipline. Edaphology is an archaic term, I am afraid; while there are pedologists, there are no edaphologists (that I know). I would suggest the article headings and organization in Wikipedia should consider the SSSA disciplines cited above, which I think are in common useage among soil scientists and allow a reasonable coverage of the entire discipline.
I am still figuring out how to edit pages here, and have not messed with the article. I would like to get rid of this "edaphology" business, but I'll wait to see if anyone responds...-- Soilguy71 ( talk) 21:16, 17 May 2010 (UTC)
The result of the move request was: Move. Cúchullain t/ c 16:39, 9 August 2017 (UTC)
– Soil science is the
WP:PRIMARYTOPIC for "pedology" in modern context. The only competitor is
Pedology (children study), an obsolete discipline from late 19th and early 20th century, chiefly in Eastern Europe and Soviet Union of the time. Its article grants that World War I (1914-1918) effectively put an end to the development of this study in Western Europe; pedology as a branch of science never reached its maturity
.
Pediatrics is seldom if ever referred to as "pedology" in contemporary usage.
Evidence:
The Pedometrics article was deleted, and redirected to pedology, without any content coming over to this article. To meet the expectations surrounding this proposed merger, the sourced pedometrics content should be recovered, and worked into the pedology article. -- Paleorthid ( talk) 23:34, 30 December 2018 (UTC)
This
level-5 vital article is rated Start-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
I understand that pedology means literally the same thing as soil science. I am also aware that several individual field soil scientists in the United States have preferred being introduced as pedologists to distinguish themselves from agronomists, geologists, geographers, sanitarians and engineers who opportunistically represent themselves as soil scientists, but who in fact have only minimal soil science training and experience. I am also aware that the term soil science doesn't translate as easily as the term pedology, and that some national soil science societies have chosen to call themselves pedological societies.
Despite the above I find very persuasive considerations in support of clarifying pedology as being one of several branches within the soil sciences. Most soil scientists known to me are not enthusiastic with the pedology term as a comprehensive term for soil science. Practice in the pure science aspects of soil chemistry, soil physics and soil minerology are particularly difficult to define as branches of pedology. Furthermore, the ascendancy of the International Union of Soil Sciences ( IUSS) has made soil science the clearly preferable term.
I maintain my certification as a professional soil classifier, so I can certainly appreciate that soil science would not be what it is (a robust discipline independent of geology, agriculture or the biological sciences) if it wasn't for pedology. Pedology is the single most important and defining branch of soil science. I certainly can't fault anyone who defends promoting pedology as the preferred term. I just think that the world has moved on beyond the 1970's and 1980's, a time when pedology quite possibly could have supplanted soil science as the preferred term.
Paleorthid 19:31, 30 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Restored the following to the article: It is one of two main branches of soil science, the other being edaphology Source: Why Study Soils?: E6: Soil science includes two main divisions: edaphology and pedology.
It probably doesn't need to be directly referenced in pedology (soil study) because it is referenced in the edaphology article, the likely place a reader would look for further infomation.
Admittedly, it is common for both terms to be carelessly applied as functionally synonymous. I would reject this as common use. Common error is different from common use. The terms are not synonymous, the importance is critical to understanding soil science, and others have gone to efforts to preserve the distinction. An example:
Edaphic factors are separate from soil forming factors, and the distinction defines a longstanding division between the (complementary) geologic and agronomic/environmental perspectives that soil science extends from. – Paleorthid 05:38, 17 June 2006 (UTC)
Famous pedologists includes Bernard Palissy in the list, but there's no mention of soil in that article. Why no mention of Charles Darwin, the fairly well known author of The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms, with observations on their habits. (1881)? .. dave souza, talk 12:19, 18 December 2006 (UTC)
I believe that edaphology can be placed under pedology and has been placed alongside due to a misconception of what pedology is.
First, Buol et al. (1997) states that "pedology is a collective term used to refer to the combination of the two phases [of soil science] - soil genesis and classification. It has also been used to refer to the combination of the the entire subfield of soil genesis and classification, morphology, survey and interpretations." This authority then lists the following subareas of pedology:
* Soil Genesis * Soil Classification * Soil Morphology * Soil Survey * Soil Geomorphology * Soil Characterization and Analysis * Soil Interpretation
Wikipedia states that Edaphology "is concerned with the influence of soils on living things, particularly plants. The term is also applied to the study of how soil influences man's overall use of the land."
I contend that this Wikipedia statement is a misconception of what pedology encompasses. The soil forming factors climate, organisms, parent material, relief, and time include plant organisms (Jenny, 1994). Jenny (1994) states that plants have an intimate continuing interaction with the soil. Plants, as the most pronounced expression of organisms interaction with soils, should be viewed as a soil forming factor and a subset of pedology; Soil Genesis, Soil Characterization and Analysis, and Soil Interpretation. Plants alter the soil by removing inorganics, contributing to the dissolution of soil minerals by exuding protons and organic acids. Plants also exude other organic compounds to chelate inorganics either for uptake or to sequester them to avoid or mediate uptake. Soil influence on man's overall use is covered in Soil Interpretation, and the Soil Survey is a product that does just that.
Pedology is integrative of other soil science disciplines. A pedologist must be conversant with other sub-disciplines of Soil Science such as Soil Chemistry, Soil Physics, and Soil Biology (sometimes referred to as Soil Microbiology or Soil Ecology). The intensity of study within these sub-disciplines often precludes the time, resources, and understanding of other soil sub-disciplines that is necessary to link the findings of their investagations to the soilscape. However, these sub-disciplines are marked by being allied to one or more of the subareas of pedology, but, again, they often do not rely on the integration if the findings into an understanding of the soilscape for acceptance of the findings by the scientific community. Pedological results always link back to the soilscape. soilman 18:39, 13 July 2007 (UTC)
I have responded here – Paleorthid ( talk) 18:43, 9 December 2007 (UTC)
This page hasnt been edited in quite some while, but I have some interest in trying to help out here; I teach a course called pedology at a Land-Grant university in the US, and have been a professor in soil science for nearly 30 years. Let me give you my understanding, and that of most other soil scientists in the US (if that is of interest to those of you reading this): pedology is one of a number of sub-disciplines within soil science (see the Soil Science Society of America web page: https://www.soils.org/membership/divisions ). It is the "field-based" part of soils in that it deals with describing soil morphology and mapping soils, as well as soil genesis and land use. It is NOT an overall term encompassing ALL of soil science, but is clearly a sub-discipline. Edaphology is an archaic term, I am afraid; while there are pedologists, there are no edaphologists (that I know). I would suggest the article headings and organization in Wikipedia should consider the SSSA disciplines cited above, which I think are in common useage among soil scientists and allow a reasonable coverage of the entire discipline.
I am still figuring out how to edit pages here, and have not messed with the article. I would like to get rid of this "edaphology" business, but I'll wait to see if anyone responds...-- Soilguy71 ( talk) 21:16, 17 May 2010 (UTC)
The result of the move request was: Move. Cúchullain t/ c 16:39, 9 August 2017 (UTC)
– Soil science is the
WP:PRIMARYTOPIC for "pedology" in modern context. The only competitor is
Pedology (children study), an obsolete discipline from late 19th and early 20th century, chiefly in Eastern Europe and Soviet Union of the time. Its article grants that World War I (1914-1918) effectively put an end to the development of this study in Western Europe; pedology as a branch of science never reached its maturity
.
Pediatrics is seldom if ever referred to as "pedology" in contemporary usage.
Evidence:
The Pedometrics article was deleted, and redirected to pedology, without any content coming over to this article. To meet the expectations surrounding this proposed merger, the sourced pedometrics content should be recovered, and worked into the pedology article. -- Paleorthid ( talk) 23:34, 30 December 2018 (UTC)