Pedology and landscape evolution

Abstract

Geomorphology and pedology were developed in different times and use different methods for landscape analysis, presenting a morphogenesis-pedogenesis duality approach. Each phase of relief evolution was related to a distinct soil development state. Tectonic processes and climatic changes are important factors to be considered in this study. The relative ages attributed to the associated surfaces were mainly based on laterite, stone lines and paleosol occurrences. New developments on science showed that particular processes related to soil development (autoevolution) can create new relief patterns, confirming that soil is a real factor for relief formation. Sedimentological and absolute dating methods associated with conventional studies of pedon transformation in toposequences made it possible to imagine a morphopedogenesis or pedomorphogenesis science, since soil and relief form an indissoluble unity affected by the same factors.