The origin of the catena concept

The catena concept in soil science comes from the Latin word “catena” which means chain. So it is a chain of soils linked by topography. It also refers to a sequence of soils in different positions in the landscape. It was introduced to the scientific literature by Geoffrey Milne (1898-1942) in a paper entitled “Some suggested units of classification and mapping particularly for East African soils” published in Soil Research-Bodenkundliche Forschung, Supplement to the Proceedings of the International Union of Soil Science Vol. IV No. 3 (1935), pp: 183-198. He noted “the regular repetition of a certain sequence of soil profiles in association with topography” in East Africa which was also observed earlier (in 1911 and 1912) by the German Peter Vageler. Milne wrote that a distinctive word is needed in referring to this phenomenon hence, he proposed the word catena.

Ernst Schlichting (1923-1988) who was professor at the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart pioneered the approach of considering the soil always as part of the landscape. He proposed that soils in different positions in the catena exchange materials through transport processes and thus could be compared to the transfer processes between horizons in a soil profile. In Schlichting’s view, the genesis of a soil can only be understood if its relation to the other soils in the catena is taken into consideration.

Catena is now also widely used in other sciences particularly ecology albeit with a slightly different meaning (e.g. a catena of terrestrial ecosystems).

(The upper figure shows the linkages between soils in a catena according to Sommer and Schlichting 1997, Geoderma 76: 1-33. The lower figure shows the typical catena in the highlands of Leyte, Philippines).