FOREST SOILS OVER 350 MILLION YEARS

The eldest traces of forest soils can be found in Devonian deposits. They contain remainders of trees and bushes. Most of the paleosoils developed under humid conditions near the coast and on deltas of rivers. Well documented are the fossil soils and relicts of plants in the deposits of the Carbon-Age as well as in younger geological periodes. Because of the interaction between vegetation and soil it is possible to conclude from relicts of plants to the soil and vice versa and to determine the corresponding climate. In some cases we find an abrupt extinction of the vegetation, followed later by a new development of soil and vegetation. This process is, however, very slow.