Pedodiversity as a part of geodiversity in creation of landscape structure

If the multifunctional landscape is accepted as a system, and biological diversity one of the external manifestations of the natural or seminatural diversity thereof, then this diversity may be assumed to result from the mutual relationships and conditions of the different elements of the system. Irrespective of the level of organisation in landscape, biodiversity is conditioned inter alia by the availability of resources, i.e. the potential of the soil cover, its diversity and spatial variability (heterogeneity). On the other hand, the potential of the soil cover is conditioned by biological diversity and its effect over time. Therefore, a special role in landscape diversity is played by the soil cover, which, being in itself an essential element of landscape formation, is genetically and structurally dependent both upon the abiotic and biotic elements, with which it remains in interaction. The spatial analysis of some soil properties conducted in this paper showed that irrespective of the scale of the study, soils play a role in creating spatial variation of landscape. Moreover, the relationship between spatial soil units, spatial vegetation units and level of landscape diversity is discussed.