Conversations with a Soil Forming Factor.

Certainly, the anthropocene has dramatically affected pedogenesis.  By definition, the anthropocene has affected pedology too, since humans cannot study pedogenesis before the time of humans.  Ironically, it’s only recently that pedology has included human impacts in a comprehensive way beyond token designations such as the plaggen epipedon and urban areas being depicted as ‘disturbed land’ on soil maps.  Within the last decade, Soil Taxonomy and the World Reference Base have added designations for observed human created soil layers and properties found when evaluating soil pedons.  Pedologists could expand pedology further by exploring and expanding ways to converse directly with the human soil forming factor as a means of determining when was time zero, what was done to create each property and horizon, and even why.