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Features of land and climate 5boulder-clays with high contents of Palaeozoic andMesozoic sedimentary rock material. In most ofnorth-eastern Skane, on the contrary, the till isnon-calcareous and has a low clay content, beingdominated by Archaean crystalline rock material,i.e. similar to the most widespread type of till inthe rest of Sweden. Transitional areas have tillswhich contain both Archaean and sedimentary,largely Palaeozoic material, often rather rich incalcite. Extensive areas are covered by sand. Postglacialcrustal movements have been small inSkane, and in the extreme south the country iseven sinking slowly.SoilsThe soils of Sweden are chiefly podsolic but thereis great local and regional variation. Brown forestsoils prevail in the south and along the southeasterncoast, but are also found elsewhere beneathluxuriant broad-leaved forest vegetation; a specialkind is typical of rich flushed sites all over thecountry. The young soils at very low altitude oftenshow various stages of incipient podsolization. Thedegree of podsolization increases towards the humidsouth-western uplands and still more towards thecool uplands of the northern interior, where typicalpodsols are strongly predominant both under conifersand mountain birch. Podsolization has anupper limit about half-way up the low-alpine belt.The terrestrial humus cover is nearly alwaysdeveloped either as mull or as mor, the latter beingby far the predominant type of humus cover.Thickness is highly variable. Mull is not alwayscombined with brown soil, for quite typical mullhas been observed on podsol. On the other hand,even though mor is of course usually combinedwith a podsol profile, it is not rare to find morresting on mineral soil that is only slightly or incipientlypodsolic, either because it was earlier coveredby mull or, in the lowland, because the climateis not humid enough to favour typical podsolexcept in very base-deficient sites. The local andtemporal variation as to the degree of podsolizationis so great that up to now a detailed pedologicalmap of Sweden has never been published, in spiteof the considerable research on forest and arablesoils that has been carried out. ;;i ce i gu;dKalkrikare jordarlerSoils rich in lime1 / 1 Kalkmaterialets lransporlriktningI I Transport direction o(disintegrated rocks rich in lime2001..m'----"----'Fig. 5. Calcareous rocks and soils, with arrows showingthe dispersal of disintegrated limestone by glacial drift.From Magnusson & al. 1963.About one sixth of Sweden is covered by peat.The percentage ranges from almost none in someagricultural areas (where the original wet and somewhatpeaty alderwoods and marshy meadows haveActa Phytogeog.r. Suec. 50