Soil cover patterns in the forest-steppe and steppe zones of the East European Plain

Abstract

The soil cover of the forest-steppe and steppe zones of the East European Plain is characterized by diverse soil combinations revealed during large-scale and detailed soil mapping against the background of a traditional zonal sequence of dominant automorphic soils alternating from the north to the south and clearly displayed on small-scale soil maps. The composition, configuration and functioning of particular soil cover patterns are determined by the soil forming factors acting within a given area. The elementary soil areas (detailed scale) and elementary soil cover patterns maps (large scale) of the Central Russian, Kalach, and Volga Uplands are created by both traditional and digital soil mapping methods. Low-contrasting soil combinations with the background Haplic Chernozems (Loamic or Clayic, Pachic) alternating with zooturbated Haplic Chernozems (Loamic or Clayic, Pachic) on convex elements of the microtopography and Luvic Chernozems (Loamic or Clayic, Pachic) on concave elements of the microtopography prevails under conditions of thick clay loamy parent materials and free drainage. Under conditions of shallow embedding by low-permeable clayey sediments, the soil cover includes Chernozems or Chernic Phaeozems with stagnic features in some part of the soil profile or even Mollic Stagnosols. The presence of shrink-swell clays of different ages leads to the formation of Bathyvertic Chernozems, Vertic Chernozems, Vertic Chernic Phaeozems and/or Pellic Vertisols. The presence of soluble salts in the parent material leads to the development of solonetzic soil complexes consisting of Protosodic or Sodic Chernozems and different types of Solonetzes.

Chernozem (czarnoziem) – soil of the year 2019 in Poland. Origin, classification and use of chernozems in Poland

“…Dokuchaev and his followers have distinguished the common (typical) chernozems of the central, tall-grass steppe belt, the southern chernozems of the short-grass dry steppe and also the 'degraded' chernozems of the moister forest-steppe zone located north of the central (continental) steppe zone (Strzemski 1971). The steppe origin of the common (typical) and southern chernozems generally has not been questioned because the conditions favourable for chernozem formation still exist in many sites of the world, and active chernozem development can be presently observed (Alexandrovskiy 2007;Khitrov et al 2019;Liu et al 2012). In contrast, the nature of 'degraded' chernozems has been continuously discussed until now (Eckmeier et al 2007;Vyslouñi-lov< et al 2016).…”

Suitability of World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) to describe and classify chernozemic soils in Central Europe

“…These single examples correspond well with numerous available characteristics of chernozems in those countries (Hraško 1966;Turski 1985;Skalský et Novák et al 2014Novák et al , 2018aŠimanský et al 2016;Vyslou•ilová et al 2016;Jonczak et al 2017;£abaz et al 2018 and support a common opinion, that chernozems existing under more continental climate are more enriched in humus and less leached compared to chernozems existing under more humid climate; the latter therefore considered a "degraded" variety (Borowiec 1968;Eckmeier et al 2007;Kaba-³a 2019). The differences between chernozems along a transect Hungary -Slovakia -Poland are similar, to some extent, to zonal differentiation of these soils from more southern steppe to more northern foreststeppe zones in European Russia (Afanasyeva 1966;Khitrov et al 2019) or in Ukraine (Pozniak and Havrysh 2019).…”

“…2b). Various transitional forms between Chernozems/Phaeozems and Luvisols/Retisols have been reported from Central and Eastern Europe (Borowiec 1968;Chendev et al 2017;Khitrov et al 2019), but the most spectacular documentation (including the dating) of the processes of chernozem degradation provide the studies in the archaeological sites, in particular on kurgans (Barczi et al 2006;Alexandrovskiy et al 2014;Vyslouñilová et al 2014b;Kaba³a et al 2019b).…”

Comparative Assessment of Digital and Conventional Soil Mapping: A Case Study of the Southern Cis-Ural Region, Russia

“…Today, the DSM in Russia is developing [3,[14][15][16][17], but not very intensively compared to foreign countries [6,11,18,19]. However, all results/studies concur about the advantage of using GIS technologies for large and medium-scale DSM.…”