Climatic Gradients of Chalk Grassland

In an earlier paper (Perring 1958) it was argued that the concept of independent variables proposed for the study of soil formation (Jenny 1941) might be applied to the study of chalk soils in Britain and that, further, a similar method might be used to study the vegetation developing upon those soils. The essential feature of the method is to study changes in soil and vegetation values in relation to changes in one independent variable whilst keeping all the others constant. Topography has already been considered in this way (Perring 1959). In this paper attention will be turned to climosequences: soil and vegetation changes will be investigated in relation to climate keeping p, parent material, r, topography, o, organisms, and t, time constant as far as possible.