1. Introduction: history of pedology. The role of soil in various grassland and forest ecosystems. Definitions of soil/pedon and morphological characteristics (1 ECITS).
2. The factors of pedogenesis: climate, lithology, geomorphology, biotic, anthropic factor, time. (1 ECTS)
3. Pedogenetic processes: alteration, translocation, addition and loss. Specific soil formation and evolution processes. The description of the profile. The superficial and profound diagnostic horizons. Soil humidity and temperature regimes. Forest soils: characteristics and classification (1 ECTS)
4. The forest soil profile and the pedogenetic horizons. The subordinate horizons. The types of humus and their classification. Morphological description of the soil properties and pedogenetic meaning: color, texture and structure (1 ECTS)
5. Classification of soils. Soil classification systems. The characteristics of the soils belonging to the classification orders of the Soil Taxonomy. The causes of degradation and desertification of soils. Soil consumption and erosion (1 ECTS)
6. Exercises: profile analysis and field report during an excursion to areas of particular forest interest. The morphological description of the soil and chemical-physical analysis in the laboratory (1 ECTS)

Giacomo Certini e Fiorenzo Cesare Ugolini Basi di Pedologia - Edagricole
Carmelo Dazzi Fondamenti di Pedologia - Le Panseur