Soil horizon designations; past use and future prospects

Approaches to the labelling of soil horizons have been ambivalent throughout the last one hundred years of soil science. Evidence from the literature appears to point to their introduction by Dokuchaev simply to list the observed horizons in his descriptions of geological sections or soils. Subsequently, some soil scientists attached a genetic meaning to these simple ciphers which involved unproven assumptions about the process of soil formation. Subsequently, others preferred to rely upon the observable and measurable characters of the soil horizon to reach an acceptable designation. A third group of scientists have rejected their use altogether and have suggested various alternatives. This paper briefly reviews the history of soil horizon designation use and, in an attempt to promote discussion, presents some possible future developments in the nature and use of these widely used symbols.