Discuss all the major factors of …

1. Parent Material: It is deposited by streams or derived from in-situ weathering. In this stage, soil inherits many properties like the mineral composition, the colour, the particle size and the chemical elements. For example- Black soil derived its colour from lava rock.
2. Climate: It is one of the important factors in the formation of soil because it affects the rate of weathering of the parent rock.
3. Role of precipitation: The variability in the precipitation modified the composition of the soil. For Example- Areas with little rainfall with high rate of evaporation led to the accumulation of salts in the soil. The soils underlying tropical rain forests tend to be nutrient-poor because of intensive leaching due to heavy rains.
4. Role of temperature: It is also play important role because fluctuations in temperature causes shrinking and swelling, frost action and general weathering in soils.
5. Biota (Flora, Fauna and Microorganisms): Biota, in conjunction with climate, modifies parent material to produce soil. For Example- Leguminous plants (such as beans, peas, and groundnuts) have nitrogen-fixing bacteria. These plants take the nitrate ions directly from these nitrogen-fixing bacteria. It improves the fertility of soil by fixing atmospheric nitrogen to ammonia or ammonium.