Soil type is the most important controller in the Chobe ecosystem, influencing substrate (vegetation) quantity and quality, and through it, the activity of the agent (elephants), the agent's effect on the substrate and subsequently, the response of other organisms to the new state of the substrate. This chapter shows that in Chobe the soil is both a controller of elephant activity, through its effects on the vegetation, and a responder to such activities. The Soil Map of Botswana shows three main soil units covering Chobe National Park, each corresponding broadly to one of the three main elephant habitats that include: ferralic arenosols, underlying the Baikiaea and mixed woodlands; calcic luvisols, forming the alluvial terraces that mostly support the Capparis–Flueggea shrublands; and calcic gleysols on the grassy floodplains. The contrast between the alluvium and the Kalahari sand is the most important controller of ecosystem processes.

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