During the process of decomposition, water-soluble inorganic nutrients go down into the soil horizon and get precipitated as unavailable salts. This specific step is called:

Step-by-step solution

According to NCERT, the important steps in the process of decomposition are fragmentation, leaching, catabolism, humification and mineralisation. By the process of leaching, water-soluble inorganic nutrients go down into the soil horizon and get precipitated as unavailable salts. Catabolism is the degradation of detritus into simpler inorganic substances by bacterial and fungal enzymes. Mineralisation is the release of inorganic nutrients due to the degradation of humus by some microbes. Humification leads to the a