In introduction, this review briefly describes rich heritage of pedology in Croatia and the late university professors and scientists who gave significant contribution to this scientific discipline. The second section gives and overview of the main sectors of fundamental and applied research (Fig. 1), their importance and hurdles encountered by the pedologists in the recent times. The third and forth sections discuss current issues of soil classification and standardization of pedochemical analyses, in connection with the new World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB). Table 1 shows reference soil groups as per WRB and their correlation with local Croatian types of soil. New insight in terra rossa genesis and its relict soils are given in more detail which, in author's opinion, need separate classification. The standardization problems have been elaborated on examples of different procedures for determination of total capacity and base saturation of the adsorbent complex with cations, as used in WRB, ISO standards and the Croatian pedological practice. Before final selection, intercalibration should be carried out because there are still new laboratory procedures.

pedology; World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB); soil genesis; laboratory analysis standardization

Published by University of Zagreb, Faculty of Agriculture, Zagreb, CROATIA
Sponsored by Ministry Science and Education of the Republic of Croatia