ATTRIBUTION TO THE R.P.
A FOUR-STEP APPROACH

Step 1:

COLLECTING as much INFORMATION as possible, from the field and in the laboratory

  • description of the solum and its environment,
  • analyses, field measurements and follow-up, thin section examination, etc.

Step 2:

INTERPRETING DATA in terms of

  • Reference Horizons,
  • a conceptual solum,
  • soil properties, behaviour, dynamics...

Step 3:

ATTRIBUTION TO ONE or MORE REFERENCES

Step 4:

EXPRESSING the ATTRIBUTION thus determined in a standard way, as below:

INTERPRETATION
  1. NAME of the REFERENCE
    Mandatory
    Open list.
    to be written in CAPITAL letters
INFORMATION
  1. Use of QUALIFIERS to emphasize and convey as much information as possible.
    Qualifiers are gathered in a glossary. Several can be used, in any sequence, non-hierarchically. The list is open.
    to be written in low case letters
  1. Short description of the PARENT MATERIAL
    (particle-size class, mineralogy, lithology, age and way of deposition)
    to be written in low case letters
Examples :
  • Fluvic, vertic, clayey, reductic CALCOSOL
  • Hyper-calcareous, calcaric RENDOSOL, from soft chalk
  • Eutric, redoxic, agric LUVISOL TYPIQUE, from loess
  • Drained, resaturated LUVISOL DÉGRADÉ, with a fragipan
  • Planosolic, dystric, albic LUVISOL DÉGRADÉ, from old alluvium
  • Pedomorphic, dystric PLANOSOL TYPIQUE from glauconitic Albian clays
  • Humiferous, rubic SULFATOSOL in a mangrove swamp
  • Recarbonated, clayey, fersiallitic COLLUVIOSOL in a doline
  • Humiferous, cultivated, sandy-clayey BRUNISOL OLIGO SATURÉ from Permian sandstone
  • Footslope PÉLOSOL-RÉDOXISOL (double attribution)
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