Geoderma 103 Ž2001.

161–179
www.elsevier.comrlocatergeoderma

A rudimentary mechanistic model for soil formation

and landscape development
II. A two-dimensional model incorporating
chemical weathering
Budiman Minasny ) , Alex B. McBratney
Department of Agricultural Chemistry and Soil Science, The UniÕersity of Sydney,
Ross St. Building A03, Sydney NSW 2006, Australia

Received 16 November 1999; received in revised form 12 December 2000;

accepted 9 February 2001

Abstract

The necessity for a quantitative analysis of pedogenesis has become more compelling in the
last few decades. In part one of this paper we proposed a rudimentary mechanistic model that
considers soil formation spatially at the catena scale. This paper extends the model for soil
formation in a landscape conditioned by a digital elevation model and further illustrates the
application of the model in quantifying pedogenesis. The current model states that the change in
soil thickness over time depends on the physical weathering rate of rock, the loss due to chemical
weathering and the transport of soil through erosion. The rate of physical weathering or lowering
of the bedrock surface is represented as an exponential decline with soil thickness. The chemical
weathering rate is modelled as a negative exponential function of both soil thickness and time.
Assuming uni-dimensional weathering, the rate of chemical weathering can be expressed as a
reduction in soil thickness. The movement of materials in the landscape is characterized by
diffusive transport. The model is solved numerically using the finite-difference approach and
applied to a digital elevation model. The results for simulation of soil formation in a landscape
after 10,000 years shows that the soil accumulates Žthickens. in the gullies and erodes Žthins. in
the ridges. The soil from the upper slope is transported down-slope by the erosion processes and
fills the gullies. Soil thickness is highly correlated with the profile curvature. The effect of
climate, rock type and land management is illustrated by different combinations of weathering rate
and erosive diffusivity. To illustrate the effect of irregularity and randomness on the stability of

)
Corresponding author. Tel.: q61-2-9351-5813; fax: q61-2-9351-3706.
E-mail address: budiman@acss.usyd.edu.au ŽB. Minasny..

0016-7061r01r$ - see front matter q 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 0 1 6 - 7 0 6 1 Ž 0 1 . 0 0 0 7 5 - 1
162 B. Minasny, A.B. McBratneyr Geoderma 103 (2001) 161–179

the solution and the soil development, spatially correlated normally distributed random numbers
were added to the initial soil elevation. The small randomness appears to cause instability Žchaos.
in the system. Dimensionality analysis of the soil thickness as a function of time confirms the
non-linear chaotic behaviour of the model rather than merely random noise. A difference plot of
the soil thickness time series unveiled the presence of a strange attractor. Alternatively, these
results may be a result of numerical instability. q 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Pedogenesis; Quantitative analysis; Chemical weathering; Landscape evolution; Chaotic

behaviour

1. Introduction

Quantitative analysis of pedogenesis has become more compelling in the last

few decades Ž Hoosbeek and Bryant, 1992. . This comes largely as a response to
environmental problems and land management, but it should also be seen as a
scientific necessity to provide a causal theory for soil variation. Quantitative
modelling provides means for prediction of environmental changes through
numerical models and can serve as a link to other disciplines. Hoosbeek and
Bryant Ž 1992. point out that quantitative models can be related to numerical
observations and suggest that a mechanistic model would be ideal for this task.
Modelling soil formation is difficult because soil itself is highly complex with
interactions between water, inorganic materials and organic matter. Most of the
pedogenetic models developed have treated the chemical reactions and physical
processes in the soil at the horizon or pedon extent. The model is usually the
integration of sub-models, such as water and solute movement, heat transport,
soil organic matter decomposition, mineral dissolution, ion exchange, adsorp-
tion, speciation, complexation and precipitation. As an alternative, Minasny and
McBratney Ž 1999. presented a rudimentary mechanistic model that temporally
precedes the others and considers soil formation spatially at the catena scale.
They presented a numerical study in one dimension and showed the application
and limitations of the model.
The purposes of this paper are Ž a. to extend the mechanistic model for soil
formation in a landscape conditioned by a digital elevation model, i.e. in two
dimensions and Ž b. to illustrate the application of the model in quantifying
pedogenesis. This paper also discusses the possibility of chaotic behaviour in
soil genetic modelling.

2. Theory

Our model considers a landscape with surface elevation z, soil with thickness
h and soil–bedrock interface e along a horizontal x- and y-axes Ž Fig. 1.. The
 B. Minasny, A.B. McBratneyr Geoderma 103 (2001) 161–179 163

Fig. 1. Model for soil formation in a landscape.

change in soil thickness over time depends on the processes of the formation of
soil from weathering of bedrock, the loss of materials by chemical weathering
and the transport of soil by erosion.
Soil formation depends on the rate of breakdown or weathering of the
underlying parent materials under physical, chemical and biological processes.
Soil erosion is mainly governed by elevation z, which acts as a potential driving
the process. The process of erosion or sediment flow may occur by soil creep or
mass wasting.
The continuity equation for the soil thickness over time can be formulated as
the change in soil elevation Ž soil thicknessq bedrock weatheringy soil weather-
ing. over time is equal to the transport of soil:

Eh Ee El
rs q rr q rs s y= Ž rs qs . Ž1.
Et Et Et

where rs is the density of soil and rr is the density of rock, l is the reduction in
soil thickness as the result of chemical weathering or solutional denudation, and
qs is the flux of materials.
164 B. Minasny, A.B. McBratneyr Geoderma 103 (2001) 161–179

The rate of physical weathering or lowering of bedrock surface ŽyEerEt .

may be represented as an exponential decline with soil thickness Ž Heimsath et
al., 1997. :
Ee
s yP0 exp Ž ybh . Ž2.
Et
where P0 wL Ty1 x is the potential weathering rate of bedrock at h s 0 and b
wLy1 x is an empirical constant. The decrease of weathering rate with thickening
of soil corresponds to the drop of temperature range with increasing depth below
soil surface. Parameters P0 and b are related to the climate and type of parent
materials, which are controlled by temperature fluctuation which affects the
breakdown indirectly through its control on moisture and processes such as
freezing–thawing and salt weathering Ž Warke and Smith, 1998. .
The volume change as a result of weathering may be expressed as a strain
Ž ´ .:
DVsoil
´s y1 Ž3.
DVrock

where DVsoil and DVrock are the changes in volume of soil and rock due to
weathering. Positive values indicate volumes that increase Ž expansion. , while
negative values indicate volume reduction Ž collapse. . If only physical weather-
ing occurs, the volume change will only increase proportional to the density
ratio between the rock and soil. It is evident that the volume change can also
decrease as a result of mineral dissolution and leaching of soluble constituents
ŽMoran et al., 1988; Brimhall et al., 1991. . Therefore, a chemical weathering
factor is introduced in the current model.
We assumed uni-dimensional weathering and the rate of weathering is
defined as a reduction in the soil thickness ElrEt. For chemical weathering, the
equation that is analogous to the first-order reaction is given as:
El
s W0 exp Ž yk 0 tk 1 h y k 2 h . Ž4.
Et
where W0 wL Ty1 x is the potential chemical weathering rate and k 0 wTy1 x is the
rate constant for time, k 1 wLy1 x and k 2 wLy1 x are the rate constants for soil
thickness. The above equation expresses the loss of material through chemical
weathering as a combination of both soil thickness and time Ž Fig. 2. . Some
modellers have suggested an alternative ‘bell-shaped’ curve for chemical weath-
ering ŽAhnert, 1977..
The movement of materials in the landscape may be described as diffusive
transport Ž Scheidegger, 1991.:
qs s yD=z Ž5.
 B. Minasny, A.B. McBratneyr Geoderma 103 (2001) 161–179 165

Fig. 2. Rate of chemical weathering as a function of soil thickness and time Žnumbers near the
curves represent time in years..

in which q s is the volume of material that flows across a slope profile width per
unit time wL3 Ly1 Ty1 x or sediment flux wL2 Ty1 x, and D is the erosive
diffusivity of the material wL2 Ty1 x, = s partial derivative vector ŽŽ ErE x . q
Ž ErE y .., =z is the first derivative of z with respect to space, i.e. the slope or
gradient. The second derivative of z with respect to space 2 Ž = 2 z s Ž E 2 zrE x 2 .
q Ž E 2 zrE y 2 .. is the curvature Žor profile curvature. , defined as the rate of
change in gradient. A positive curvature reflects a concave slope Ž valley. , and
negative one is a convex slope Ž hill..
If we combine Eqs. Ž1. and Ž5. and assume constant density and diffusivity,
then we can define the general equation for soil formation in a landscape:

Eh rr Ee El
sy y q D= 2 z Ž6.
El rs Et Et

The above equation states that the change in soil thickness over time depends
on the weathering of bedrock, the loss of materials due to chemical weathering
and the transport of soil through erosion.
Given appropriate initial and boundary conditions, Eq. Ž 6. can be solved
numerically using the finite-difference approach. The formulation using the
166 B. Minasny, A.B. McBratneyr Geoderma 103 (2001) 161–179

explicit Forward-Time-Centered-Space Ž FTCS. approximation Ž Press et al., 1992.

on a space grid Ž x, y . over time Ž t . is:

h tq1 t
x, y y h x, y rr d e dl
sy q
Dt rs dt dt

t t t
z xq1, y y 2 z x , y q z xy1, y z xt , yq1 y 2 z xt , y q z xt , yy1
qD 2 q 2
ŽD x. ŽD y.
Ž7.

The following initial and boundary conditions are applied:

h s hi , z s zi t s 0, x , y G 0 hG0 tG0

de
s yP0 exp Ž ybh . t ) 0, 0 - x , y - `
dt
dl
s W0 exp Ž yk 1 h y k 2 t . t ) 0, 0 - x , y - `
dt
Eh Eh
s 0, s0 t ) 0, x y s 0, and x , y ™ `
Ex Ey

The initial condition describes the soil thickness and elevation at h i and z i . The
boundary conditions express that the soil thickness should be greater or equal to
zero at all times. The physical weathering rate is assumed to be an exponential
decay function of the soil thickness, and chemical weathering reduces the soil

Table 1
Parameters used in the simulation
Parameters Values
D 0.008 m2 yeary1
P0 1.0=10y3 m yeary1
b 1.5 my1
W0 1.6=10y3 m yeary1
k0 0.001 yeary1
k1 0.8 my1
k2 1.5 my1
rr 2.6 Mg my3
rs 1.6 Mg my3
Dt 100 year
D x, D y 2.0 m
 B. Minasny, A.B. McBratneyr Geoderma 103 (2001) 161–179 167

Table 2
Parameters illustrating the combination low and high values of weathering and erosive diffusivity
Low High
2 y1 .
D Žm year 0.008 0.080
P0 Žm yeary1 . 0.1=10y3 1.0=10y3
W 0 Žm yeary1 . 0.1=10y3 3.0=10y3

thickness exponentially. The last condition defines the lower and upper bound-
ary for the finite-difference space grid.

3. Methods

3.1. Application of the model

A digital elevation model from a landscape with spatial grid spacing of 2 m is

used for the application of the model. The landscape comprises hills and valleys
with a maximum relief of 82 m. The landscape is assumed to have a uniform
initial soil thickness of h i . The density of rock and soil, and diffusivity D are
assumed to be spatially and temporally constant. The parameters used for the
simulation are summarised in Table 1.

Fig. 3. Semivariogram of the random noise added to the initial soil elevation.
168 B. Minasny, A.B. McBratneyr Geoderma 103 (2001) 161–179

To illustrate different climatic conditions and parent materials Ž which affect

the weathering rate. and different land management Ž which affect the erosive
diffusivity. , combinations of low and high values of weathering and transport
parameters are used ŽTable 2. .
To demonstrate the effect of irregularity and randomness on the stability of
the solution and soil development, spatially correlated ‘noise’ were added to the
initial soil elevation. The noise were generated from normally distributed
random numbers with mean of 0 m and standard deviation of 0.1 m and
correlated spatially using a ‘moving average’ window. A spherical variogram
model was fitted to the random noise with parameters: nuggets 0; sill s 0.01 m
2 and range s 7.6 m Ž Fig. 3.. The parameters used are the same as in Table 1,
except for a higher D rate of 0.0102 m2 yeary1. Similar procedures are tested
by adding the random noise to the weathering parameters P0 .

4. Results and discussion

The results on simulation of soil formation in a landscape after 10,000 years

are shown in Fig. 4. The shading Žcontour plot. over the surface relief shows the
soil thickness, showing that the soil accumulates Ž thickens. in the valleys and
erodes Žthins. on the ridges. The soil appears to be thicker in the gullies than
along the valleys. This is caused by the assumption of uniform diffusive
transport across the landscape. The soil thickness is strongly correlated to

Fig. 4. Soil formation in a landscape after 10,000 years, shading represents soil thickness Žin m..
 B. Minasny, A.B. McBratneyr Geoderma 103 (2001) 161–179 169

curvature. The soil needs to fill in the gullies before it can be transported
further. In reality, D must vary across the landscape depending on the slope.
A cross-section of the landscape shows the accumulation of the soil with time
ŽFig. 5.. The soil from the upper slope is transported down-slope by erosion and
filled the gullies. The soil thickness is highly correlated with the surface
curvature.
Fig. 6a shows the formation of the soil with time. The rate of formation is
initially rapid then gradually increases. The plot of the rate of soil thickness
changes over time is shown in Fig. 4b. In Minasny and McBratney Ž 1999. , we
presented a model with only physical weathering and the change in soil
thickness over time decreased exponentially. With the extension to chemical
weathering we can see that initially the rate is slow and increases due to the high
physical weathering of the bedrock and also the loss of soil caused by chemical
dissolution. After reaching a maximum weathering rate, the rate decreases
exponentially. Chemical weathering depends on the presence of water. At the
initial stage of weathering, the soil is thin and there is little water held by the
soil, as the soil grows thicker the chemical processes become more effective
until reaching a maximum rate at a certain thickness before it slowly decreases
following first-order kinetics.
The volume change due to weathering is usually measured as a strain
ŽBrimhall et al., 1991. . In our model since the weathering is assumed to be

Fig. 5. Cross-section across the landscape illustrating the increase in soil thickness and its relation
to surface elevation Žthick line.. Each line Žfrom the bottom. represents an increment of 200 years.
170 B. Minasny, A.B. McBratneyr Geoderma 103 (2001) 161–179

Fig. 6. The change in soil thickness Ža., and its rate Žb., with time.

uni-dimensional, the strain can be calculated as the change in soil thickness over
the change in the soil–bedrock interface:

Dh
´s y1
De
 B. Minasny, A.B. McBratneyr Geoderma 103 (2001) 161–179 171

The strain of the landscape after 10,000 years is illustrated in Fig. 7. For the
model without erosion, the strain will be uniform across the landscape. Because
of the transport of materials across the landscape the volume change is variable
depending on the position on the landscape. This has implications for detailed
weathering studies.
The effect of climate, rock types and land management is illustrated by
different combinations of weathering rates and erosive diffusivity. Results in
Fig. 8 show such combinations. At slow weathering and slow erosion rates soil
formation is small and distributed evenly in the landscape. When weathering is
intense the landscape progressively produces a thick soil mantle until it reaches
equilibrium. In extreme situations where the weathering is slow and erosion is
great, the soil in the ridges or hills are eroded leaving a bare rock exposure in
the surface where most of the soil is accumulated in the gullies or valleys. In an
intense weathering and erosion environment as the soil thickens it is also
distributed down through the landscape.
Addition of a small amount of randomness on the initial surface elevation or
weathering parameter produces a chaotic behavior in the results for the model.
The result for the soil thickness over time ŽFig. 9. shows bifurcation Ž Gleick,
1987.. The overall shape of the final elevation does not change dramatically, but
small variations are present locally, which are due to the variation of soil
thickness ŽFigs. 9 and 10. .
Semivariograms of elevation and soil thickness after 10,000 years of simula-
tion in the stable and apparently chaotic system are shown in Fig. 11. The soil

Fig. 7. Volume change Žstrain. in the landscape after 10,000 years. Continuous lines represent
areas with zero strain.
 172
B. Minasny, A.B. McBratneyr Geoderma 103 (2001) 161–179
Fig. 8. Combinations of different weathering rates and erosive diffusivity on the shape of the landscape.
 B. Minasny, A.B. McBratneyr Geoderma 103 (2001) 161–179 173

Fig. 9. Chaotic behaviour of soil thickness with time.

thickness ŽFig. 11b. of a chaotic system has a similar shape to the stable system
but initially has a much higher nugget variance Ž f 0.2 m2 .. Consequently, the
surface elevation of the apparently chaotic system exhibits higher variance
compared with the stable system at short distances. The variance difference
between the apparently chaotic and stable systems at the shortest distance Ž 2 m.
is approximately equal to the nugget variance of the soil thickness Ž f 0.2 m2 ..
In order to determine whether this result is merely random noise or chaotic
behaviour, dimensionality analysis is required Ž Fowler and Roach, 1993. . For a
nonlinear system, a time series can be described by multidimensional vectors of
time, the so-called phase space. A plot of the phase space of the hŽ t . may reveal
the chaotic behaviour of the system, which is usually characterized by a fractal
object known as a strange attractor.
Sugihara and May Ž1990. predicted the short-term future values in a time
series based on a library of the existing patterns. A plot of the correlation
coefficient R between the predicted and actual values over the embedding
dimension Ž E . ŽFig. 12. provides insight into the dimensionality of a system.
For a nonlinear dynamic system, the correlation should be high and decrease
with increasing number of dimensions, while random noise will have a low
correlation that does not change with increasing number of dimensions. The
correlation plot in Fig. 13 shows a high correlation at E s 2. This means that
174 B. Minasny, A.B. McBratneyr Geoderma 103 (2001) 161–179

Fig. 10. Cross-section of the landscape showing the elevation at initial condition Žsmooth line. and
after 10,000 years in the apparent chaotic system in Ža. upper slope and Žb. lower slope.
 B. Minasny, A.B. McBratneyr Geoderma 103 (2001) 161–179 175

Fig. 11. Semivariogram of Ža. elevation and Žb. soil thickness of the apparent chaotic system.

when plotted in two dimensions the time series will unfold the chaotic character-
istics of the system.
 176
B. Minasny, A.B. McBratneyr Geoderma 103 (2001) 161–179
Fig. 12. Difference plot of soil thickness over time and its magnification revealing the strange attractor.
 B. Minasny, A.B. McBratneyr Geoderma 103 (2001) 161–179 177

Fig. 13. Correlation coefficient with the embedding dimension of the chaotic soil thickness
time-series.

The plot of differences of successive values in time w hŽ t q 2. y hŽ t q 1. vs.

hŽ t q 1. y hŽ t .x in Fig. 13 shows that each successive value depends upon the
value of its predecessor. The plot shows groups of lines aligning together, but
when we magnify the plot we find that within the lines lie hidden objects with
similar patterns. Magnification of the plot progressively uncovers the existence
of a strange attractor in the series.
The apparently chaotic behaviour is mainly due to the highly nonlinearity of
the model and sensitivity to the initial condition. The chaotic system advances
deterministically, where the current state depends on the previous state. Addition
of a small random component and increasing the diffusive parameters produces
unpredictable outcomes.
For the one-dimensional diffusive transport partial differential system, the
explicit finite difference solution is conditionally stable when the ratio F s
DD trŽ D x . 2 G 0.5 ŽPress et al., 1992. . The stability of the model is evaluated
using the parameters as in Table 1 and varying D. When D s 0.0105 m2
yeary1 Ž F s 0.2625. , the system begins to show small instabilities after 8000
years and further increase in the ratio F s DD trŽ D xD y . results in higher
instabilities at shorter times. The plot of stability ratio F against the nugget
variance of soil thickness after 10,000 years is shown in Fig. 14. The model
178 B. Minasny, A.B. McBratneyr Geoderma 103 (2001) 161–179

Fig. 14. Stability ratio of numerical solution against the nugget variance of soil thickness.

appears stable only when the ratio F F 0.25. Therefore, the apparently chaotic
behaviour of this model may well be due to numerical instability.

5. Conclusions

The rudimentary mechanistic model for soil formation in a landscape has

been presented and expanded to include chemical weathering and the application
in a two-dimensional landscape has been illustrated. There are still many
limitations and assumptions in the model which need to be improved.
Ø Soil formation is assumed to be a single layer with constant density, which
simplifies many physical and chemical processes. We need to model the process
of horizonisation.
Ø The model also assumes that the landscape is a closed system where the
material is only transported and there is no loss. It needs to take into account the
amount of material lost from the system by erosion.
Ø The erosive diffusivity coefficient D is always assumed to be spatially and
temporally constant in a landform and to be independent of slope or curvature.
Nonlinear diffusivity transport has been found and a nonlinear relationship
between sediment flux and gradient has also been demonstrated Ž Roering et al.,
1999.. This kind of formulation needs to be incorporated into the model.
 B. Minasny, A.B. McBratneyr Geoderma 103 (2001) 161–179 179

In spite of the assumptions and limitations, the results are promising in terms
of quantitative modelling of pedogenesis. Application of the model can include a
prediction of the effect of land management on soil development and suggest
management practices in a landscape. However, to utilise and validate the model
in the landscape much field and laboratory work is needed to collect data to
estimate the parameters of the model.

Acknowledgements

We thank Emeritus Prof. N. Collis-George for his helpful discussion on the

manuscript.

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