Regosols

Regosols are young, mineral soils with a minimal ochric surface horizon, developed on deep, well‐drained, medium‐textured, parent materials.

Connotation. Soils in the weathered shell of the Earth; from Gr. rhegos, blanket.

Synonyms. In other systems of classification soils at the incipient stage of formation represented by the WRB group Regosols, are classed as ‘entisols’ (USA), ‘skeletal soils’ (Australia), ‘Rohböden’ (Germany), and ‘sols peu évolués régosoliques d'érosion’ or even ‘sols minéraux bruts d'apport éolien ou volcanique’ (France).

Definition. Regosols are operationally defined as very weakly developed mineral soils in unconsolidated materials with only an ochric surface horizon. They are not shallow enough to be leptosols, sandy enough to be arenosols, and lack the fluvic properties that would allow them to be classed as fluvisols. In effect, Regosols are considered to be a “taxonomic rest group” (FAO, 2001), defined negatively as all soils that could not be accommodated...