Gelisols are an order in USDA soil taxonomy. They are soils of very cold climates which are defined as containing permafrost within two meters (6 ft 7 in) of the soil surface.

Gelisols (from Latin gelare, "to freeze") are soils of very cold climates that contain permafrost within two meters of the surface. These soils are limited geographically to the high-latitude polar regions and localized areas at high mountain elevations.

Gelisols are perennially frozen soils of the Arctic and Antarctic regions, but they are also found at extremely high elevations in the lower latitudes. They are fragile, easily eroded soils, and their location near the polar ice caps makes them important indicators of the …

Gelisols are soils that have permafrost near the soil surface and/or have evidence of cryoturbation (frost churning) and/or ice segregation. The central concept of Gelisols is that of soils that …

2014年1月1日 · Gelic materials are mineral or organic soil materials that have evidence of cryoturbation (frost churning), ice segregation in the active layer, or the upper part of the permafrost. Low soil temperatures cause soil-forming processes such as decomposition of organic materials to proceed very slowly.

2013年7月2日 · Gelisols, most notably those with ice-cemented permafrost, have unique morphological properties caused by patterned ground formation, cryoturbation, and cryostructures caused by freeze–thaw cycles.

Dark, organic-rich soils underlain by permafrost are classified as Gelisols; these cover nearly 9% of the ice-free land surface. Vertisols are the clay-enriched soil order that shrink and crack during dry periods, and swell during wet periods.

Permafrost-affected organic soils are classified as the Histels suborder in the Gelisols order (Soil Survey Staff 2014). Based on current calculations of earth’s land surface of 148,940,000 km 2 and our estimate of peatland area (or the combined area of Histosols and Histels) (Table 10.1), peatlands occupy about 2.7% of the earth’s surface.

Gelisols are soils with permafrost within 2 meters of the surface. These soils generally have limited profile development. Most of the soil forming processes in these soils occur near the surface, sometimes resulting in significant accumulation of organic matter. Large areas of this soil occur in the Northern regions of Russia, Canada, and Alaska.

In this issue of Soil Horizons, Dr. C.L. Ping, Palmer Research Center, Agricultural & Forestry Experiment Station, University of Alaska—Fairbanks, discusses cryogenesis and state factors of formation of Gelisols. On the right is a highly cryoturbated Gelisol profile, formed in moist nonacid tundra, Arctic Coastal Plain, Alaska.