“…Their digestion system is not able to digest tannin-protein compounds and highly polymerized polysaccharides (lignin) efficiently and these accumulate and hamper the progress of decomposition (Minderman, 1968;Gourbière, 1982;Toutain, 1987). The acid organic compounds released in the course of decomposition are not flocculated in the presence of mineral particles; they behave as aggressive compounds that may leach and actively participate in the weathering of minerals, thus favouring processes like podzolisation (Berthelin et al, 1979;Pedro, 1989).…”