Soils from a warm-temperate semi-tropical ecozone (Mediterranean) with humid winter months

Abstract

The term ‘Mediterranean’ is applied to a specific climate and kind of vegetation that is typical of areas surrounding the Mediterranean Sea but also found in five other world regions, namely California, central Chile, Southwest and South Australia, and the Cape region of South Africa. Because soil-forming factors vary widely among Mediterranean areas, the resulting soils share neither morphology nor genesis. Despite their considerable diversity, the body of properties of soils in the Mediterranean areas makes them significantly different from soils in subtropical and other temperate climatic regions. This justifies separate consideration of the genesis and properties of ‘Mediterranean soils,’ a term that is used here with no intended specific genetic meaning and encompasses all soils in areas with a Mediterranean climate.