ABSTRACT
Costa Rica has extraordinary soil variability in a very limited area, greatly enhancing vegetation diversity and thus possibilities for any kind of agricultural operations (Bertsch et al., 2000). The reason for this diversity is the highly variable parent material, a heterogeneous relief, and the action of a greatly variable climate and biota. Most of the soils are young, reflecting the relatively recent formation of the Costa Rican landmass. Some shallow volcanic soils in mountainous regions are less than 400 years old, formed from volcanic ashes deposited by recent eruptions, and others have developed A horizons from ashes deposited in 1963-1965. The age of the organic soils in the alluvial plains has been reported to be less than 3,400 years old. These are remarkably young soils by world standards, and their youth has important implications for their potential for human use and carbon sequestration.
