A soil trail?-a case study from anglesey, wales, UK

Abstract

Geodiversity includes not just rocks and major geological features, it also embraces soft sediments and landscape features. This paper demonstrates how soil profiles can be promoted within geoheritage as an important feature of the aesthetics of the landscape as well as being vital to support biodiversity and many environmental functions including pollution abatement, climate change and food production. Their importance is recognised increasingly by scientists and policy makers but there is great diversity of soil types that often goes unrecognised, and hence soils are not always used appropriately. Whilst writing a guide to the coastal footpath around Anglesey, it became obvious that there are numerous opportunities to view the soil exposed on cliff edges and this prompted the idea of a trail leaflet for walkers and the interested public. This paper summarises the range of soils on view and how they support different land uses and form the underlying reason for the diversity of the landscape. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.