This process is known as podsolization, and changes the soil colour to a dull grey.

The process of podzolization usually occurs under low pH values.

Podzolization occurs when severe leaching leaves the upper horizon virtually depleted of all soil constituents except quartz grains.

During the 1930s, soil formation was explained in terms of loosely conceived processes, such as "podzolization," "laterization," and "calcification."

Impermeable clay limits downward percolation of water and fulvic acids, reducing chemical weathering and podzolization.

In Britain, for example, podzolization succeeded brown earth formation, and because human action was involved in the vegetation change there was also an effect upon soil profiles (Bridges, 1978b).

Thus, in stark contrast to soil in forests, tropical forests have little to no podzolization and therefore do not have marked visual and chemical contrasts with the soil layers.

Podzolization is the comprehensive name for the process of mobilization and precipitation of dissolved organic matter, together with aluminum and iron as they leach down from the A and E horizons to the B horizon.

This process is known as podzolization and is particularly intense in boreal and cool temperate forests that are mainly constituted by coniferous pines whose litterfall is rich in phenolic compounds and fulvic acid.