The complex nature of soil means that the type of soil that a region has depends on many factors. To see this, just look at the soils you find in different locations. Is the soil in the desert like that in a rainforest? Is the soil in Arctic regions like that near the equator? What about the soil on
a mountain compared to that in a valley? These locations all have different soils because of a myriad of factors. There is a significant amount of interplay between these factors, though, that complicates the process of soil creation. To see this, let’s look at what some of the more important factors are1.