Calcification: A dry environment soil-forming procedure that results in the accumulation of calcium carbonate in surface soil layers. It is a soil process in which the surface soil is supplied with calcium in such a way that the soil colloids are always close to saturation.
Fig: Dona paula
In humid, dry grasslands, soil microbes and fungi quickly change decaying organic substance into humus, so the higher layers of the soil become rich. Burrowing animals mix this organic substance deeper into the soil. The grasses uptake ample of calcium and draw it up from lower layers of the soil; when they die, they arrival it to the higher layers, so these soils tend to be slightly alkaline and aspect huge quantities of calcium salts. For this cause, they are called calcified soils. Calcification can also take place in desert areas; only here, the procedure is rather dissimilar water increasing through capillary action leaves deposits of calcium carbonate, and little or no organic substance is present.
