A grey or light-coloured 'E' horizon is the result of severe leaching, or eluviation, which washes out everything but quartz grains. Eluviation is the removal of soil, clay, silt or fine organic ...

Organic soil horizons contain about one-third of the soil carbon. Therefore, the stability of boreal soils is critical to ...

Cryoturbation, the burial of topsoil material into deeper soil horizons by repeated freeze–thaw events, is an important storage mechanism for soil organic matter (SOM) in permafrost-affected soils.

Soil organisms, like earthworms, mix the materials together, merging the boundaries between the horizons. These soils are leached, but not heavily, so the aluminium and iron oxides are dispersed ...