Soil Leaching

the washing of water-soluble compounds out of the soil and the movement of a portion of the colloids into lower layers or subsoil rock. It is caused by a downward flow of water and affects mainly soils that are developing under conditions of elutriation, when the influx of moisture from atmospheric precipitation exceeds its outflow in evap-oration and transportation by plants. In the USSR such soils are, for example, leached chernozems and soils of the more northern latitudes. Elements of plant nutrition are lost as a result of leaching. The term “leaching” is often used as a synonym for “desalinization”: leaching facilitates the exploitation and raises the fertility of saline soils.