pedalfern.
/pᵻˈdalfə/, U.S. /pəˈdælfər/ Soil Science.
A soil in which there is no layer of accumulated calcium carbonate, but in which oxides of iron and aluminium have tended to accumulate (usually acidic and characteristic of humid climates). Cf. pedocal n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > structure of the earth > constituent materials > earth or soil > kind of earth or soil > [noun] > other soils
white earth1448
Chiltern?1530
light land1589
deads1653
rosil1691
moorland1753
prairie soil1817
residuum1828
rendzina1905
podzol1908
solonetz1924
solod1925
solonchak1925
pedalfer1928
pedocal1928
skeletal soil1932
peloid1933
sierozem1934
planosol1938
lithosol1939
regosol1949
andosol1958
Alfisol1960
Aridisol1960
Histosol1960
Spodosol1960
Andisol1978
1928 C. F. Marbut in Proc. & Papers 1st Internat. Congr. Soil Sci. 4 20 A formal definition of the two groups is as follows: I. Includes all soils in whose maturely developed profiles no higher percentage of lime carbonate is found than in the parent material beneath them and in which either a shifting or an accumulation of sesquioxide and in many cases both, has taken place... The name Pedalfers is suggested as a designation for the soils of group I, and Pedocals for those of group II.
1930 L. A. Wolfanger Major Soil Div. of U.S. iv. 100 The agriculture of the pedalfers is characterized by its wealth in crop variety and its extended development of crop centers.
1972 C. B. Hunt Geol. Soils viii. 167 The significant feature of pedalfers is that moisture is sufficient to wet the soil to its capacity..and to allow excess water to..remove the soluble constituents.
2002 Oecologia 132 332 Values [for leaf 13C content] are dramatically depleted at sites that receive more than 550 mm mean annual precipitation, roughly the boundary (pedalfer–pedocal) at which soils commonly fill to field capacity in summer and carbonates are leached.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1928