That’s a fine bed of moss on the surface. It’s boreal forest, so this area near a road cut had plenty of light. Other areas were dark enough from tree canopy cover that it was just some fallen needles that decompose into many organic acids - pH of the E horizon was around pH 3.5-4. That coupled with coarse texture and plenty of leaching with spring thaw helped develop the horizons. Despite the degree of development, this is a young soil relatively. This region was glaciated (continental ice sheet hundreds of meters thick) just 10,000 or so years ago.
That’s a fine bed of moss on the surface. It’s boreal forest, so this area near a road cut had plenty of light. Other areas were dark enough from tree canopy cover that it was just some fallen needles that decompose into many organic acids - pH of the E horizon was around pH 3.5-4. That coupled with coarse texture and plenty of leaching with spring thaw helped develop the horizons. Despite the degree of development, this is a young soil relatively. This region was glaciated (continental ice sheet hundreds of meters thick) just 10,000 or so years ago.