Soil science became a scientific discipline in the 19th Century when
agricultural chemists and agro-geologists combined their efforts and
soils were seen as natural bodies that ought to be studied independently.
In the first half of the 20th Century soil science grew rapidly and
established some solid subdisciplines such as pedology, soil chemistry,
soil biology, soil mineralogy, soil fertility and soil physics (Brevik and
Hartemink, 2010).