ABSTRACT

The soils of the New Guinea highlands, like those in any region of the world, result from complex and ongoing processes. The foregoing environmental factors of climate, geology, topography and vegetation all contribute to them, interacting over time to produce today’s soils. The time that these soil forming processes have been active is relatively short in pedological terms. Regarding the region’s soils this is noteworthy: geologically and topographically youthful, it consequently has young soils.