CLORPTclimate

CLORPTclimate is a term used in pedology to refer to the climate component of the CLORPT framework, which identifies five broad factors shaping soil formation: climate, organisms, relief, parent material, and time. In this context, CLORPTclimate describes how temperature and moisture regimes govern weathering rates, leaching, organic matter decomposition, and the development of soil horizons. The influence of climate operates through parameters such as mean annual temperature, precipitation, humidity, seasonality, and frequency of freeze-thaw cycles, all of which affect soil texture, structure, pH, and mineralogy.

Climate affects soil formation by controlling the rate and pattern of weathering, the movement of soluble nutrients through the profile, the balance between organic matter inputs and decomposition, and the formation of moisture regimes that drive redox, salinization, or podzolization. The interplay with time determines how these processes accumulate and how horizons differentiate over landscapes.

Applications include interpretation of soil profiles across climates, informing soil classification and land evaluation, and driving climate-sensitive soil models and projections of soil carbon stocks. In mapping and modeling, climate inputs determine rates of weathering and organic matter turnover, which in turn shape expected soil properties in a given region.

Limitations: CLORPTclimate is one aspect of soil formation and interacts with organisms, relief, parent material, and time. Soil outcomes are site-specific and scale-dependent; thus, climate alone cannot predict soil type. The term may be used to emphasize climate in discussions of pedogenesis or in climate-change impact studies.

Examples include highly weathered tropical soils such as Ultisols under wet climates; arid-region soils like Aridisols under low precipitation; temperate grassland soils such as Mollisols associated with moderate climates.