ABSTRACT
Diversity and variability of soils may arise from extrinsic or intrinsic factors. Extrinsic factors are external to the soil itself, and represent environmental controls such as the soil-forming factors of climate, biota, topography, parent material and external disturbances, such as human agency, hydrometeorological events, volcanic eruptions, etc. Intrinsic factors are internal to the soil, and include pedogenetic processes and interactions among soil components. The interaction of intrinsic and extrinsic factors may also infl uence pedodiversity. Pedogenetic processes may act to reinforce and exaggerate soil variations associated with environmental controls, or to smooth and reduce such variations. The amplifi cation (or fi ltering) of initial variations and disturbances can result in the divergent (or convergent) evolution of soils, with resulting increases (or decreases) in pedodiversity. This chapter discusses the role of nonlinear dynamics in pedogenesis with respect to these phenomena.
