GENESIS AND SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF SPPODOSOLS IN BRAZIL

a review under micromorphological approach

Abstract

Spodosols are present over 167.506,11 km² of the Brazilian territory, and they represent the eight greater class of soils in the area. Its territorial coverage is regionally distributed within the country, with occurrence in diverse morphoclimatic domains, however, it tends to expand in some environments whilst retracting in others. Therefore, this work aims to present and discuss the spatial distribution of this soil class and to perform literature review over the application of micromorphology technique in Brazilian spodosols, to introduce current demands regarding past questions which could aid in future practical and applied investigations. Soil microstructures
provide important information regarding environmental changes, that when analyzed and interpreted by the technique, could evidence processes that happened in the past and the present, enhancing the comprehension regarding soil genesis. Futhermore, it was also possible to discuss future modification in the spatial distribution of spodosols, considering human action as a transformation agent of the landscape and, consequently, from soil types, in the context of environmental and climatic global changes.