Humus Horizons of Soils in Urban Ecosystems

The origin, structure, composition, and properties of soil humus horizons in functional zones of St. Petersburg have been studied. The radiocarbon age of organic matter in the humus horizons varies from 500 to 2700 years, which attests to the natural origin of humus. The structure of microbiomes in the humus horizons of soils under different plant communities has its specific features. The taxonomic structure of microbial communities at the phylum level reflects both genetic features of natural soils and the impact of anthropogenic factors, including alkalization typical of the studied urban soils. Tomographic studies have shown that the transporting system of humus horizons is less developed in the anthropogenically transformed soils in comparison with the natural soils. It can be supposed that the intensity of water and gas exchange in the anthropogenic soils is much lower than that in the natural soils. The fractional and group composition of humus in the urban soils is specified by the long-term pedogenesis, on one hand, and by the impact of metabolic products of the city and the factors of soil formation in the megalopolis, on the other hand. Bulk density of the humus horizon in the urban soils is higher than that in the natural soils; the portion of overcompacted humus horizons in the urban soils reaches 44%. Humus horizons of the lawns along highways are most contaminated with heavy metals: Pb, Zn, and Cu. There are no definite regularities in the distribution of major nutrients (NPK) in the humus horizons of anthropogenic soils.     

Fungal communities in the soils of early medieval settlements in the taiga zone

The difference between the mycobiota in anthropogenically transformed soils of the settlements of the 9th–14th centuries and in the background zonal Podzols and umbric Albeluvisols of the middle and southern taiga subzones in the European part of Russia is demonstrated. The mycological specificity of anthropogenically transformed soils with a cultural layer (CL) in comparison with the background soils is similar for all the studied objects. Its characteristic features are as follows: (1) the redistribution of the fungal biomass in the profile of anthropogenically transformed soils in comparison with zonal soils, (2) the lower amount of fungal mycelium in the CL with the accumulation of fungal spores in this layer, (3) the increased species diversity of fungal communities in the CL manifested by the greater morphological diversity of the spore pool and by the greater diversity of the fungi grown on nutrient media, (4) the change in the composition and species structure of fungal communities in the CL, (5) the replacement of dominant species typical of the zonal soils by eurytopic species, and (6) the significant difference between the fungal communities in the CL and in the above-and lower-lying horizons and buried soils of the same age. Most of the mycological properties of the soils of ancient settlements are also typical of modern urban soils. Thus, the mycological properties of soils can be considered informative carriers of soil memory about ancient anthropogenic impacts.     

Morphological diagnostics of pedogenesis on the anthropogenically transformed floodplains in Moscow

At present, many parts of river valleys, including floodplains, are being actively used for urban construction. This leads to the disturbance of normal functioning of the valleys; alluvial deposits and soils become buried under the thickness of various anthropogenic materials. Four profiles of typical urban soils (urbanozems) developed on the floodplain of the Moskva River and its small tributaries have been studied. The macro- and micromorphological characteristics (including data of submicroscopic studies) and the chemical and physicochemical properties of these soils are analyzed. It is shown that the influence of ground-water on the anthropogenically transformed soils of floodplains and low terraces is preserved even upon the cessation of regular flooding. The substitution of urban pedosedimentogenesis for alluvial pedosedimentogenesis has a gradual character with a transitional stage of simultaneous occurrence of both processes. Clayey and clayey-calcareous infillings in the middle-profile horizons and newly formed phosphates of iron and calcium in the lower horizons affected by the groundwater can be considered typical diagnostic features of the urban-alluvial pedogenesis.     

An assessment of anthropogenic soil transformation of the arkhangelskoe museum estate based on the example of studying inclusions

The natural soil cover of a territory is transformed during the formation of landscape architecture objects. Natural soils are replaced by anthropogenically transformed soils and soil-like bodies. Due to technological features, either only surface horizons of natural soils or an entire range of horizons within a significant profile can be replaced. To determine the extent of transformation, the composition of inclusions of anthropogenically transformed and anthropogenic soils of the museum-estate Arkhangelskoe was studied. The study results were used to assess the extent of soil contamination and to determine the features of the composition of anthropogenic inclusions. A practical proposal on research on the coarse fraction inclusions of the soil was made.     

Anthropogenic Soils on the Territory of the New Jerusalem Monastery,Moscow Region

The soil cover inside the walls of the New Jerusalem Monastery (in the city of Istra, Moscow region) has been completely transformed during the long history of anthropogenic loads on the local landscape. Specific anthropogenic soils have been formed from the technogenic deposits on the top and slopes of the monastery hill. These soils contain numerous artifacts; in their upper part, horizons with characteristic features of the modern humus-accumulative process have been developed. The major types of anthropogenic soils on the territory of the monastery—urbiagrostratozems, soddy urbistratozems, and soddy-calcareous urbistratified soils—have been described. The composition of technogenic deposits determines the shift of pH values towards the alkaline reaction, the high content of available phosphorus compounds, and the soil contamination with heavy metals. The post-alluvial gray-humus soils close in their morphology and chemical properties to the natural soils of the floodplain predominate in the soil cover of the park zone adjacent to the walls of the monastery in the Istra River valley.     

The mycological properties of medieval culture layers as a form of soil ‘biological memory’ about urbanization

Background, aim, and scope  The mycological properties of soil can offer information about ancient human–landscape interaction, including urbanization. This preposition has been confirmed in our study of the habitation deposits in the medieval Russian settlements (eighth to fourteenth centuries A.D.). Materials and methods  The mycobiota of profiles of anthropogenically transformed soil of excavated medieval settlements were examined in different climate conditions in the European part of Russia. The fungal biomass and biomass structure were evaluated using luminescent microscopy. The isolation and enumeration of microfungi were performed using the method of serial dilutions of soil samples and plating them out on the number of solid media. The isolation of keratinolytic microfungi was performed by hear-bite technique. Results  It was established that in ancient urban soils, the mycobiota may have properties different from those of zone fungal communities. The examined cultural layers of ancient settlements differ from the horizons of the surrounding natural soils because of a bigger rate of fungal spores in fungal biomass, more mosaic distribution of microfungal communities, different species composition and dominant microfungal species, increased incidence of some ecological, and trophic fungal groups (for example, keratinophilic, potentially pathogenic microfungi). Discussion  The mycological characteristics of anthropogenic deposits in the excavated medieval settlements were found to be mainly similar to mycological properties of modern urban soils. Conclusions  These properties of habitation deposits can be interpreted as a kind of “soil mycological memory” of the ancient urban impact. Recommendations and perspectives  Soil mycological characteristics could be used in paleoecological reconstructions and biomonitoring of urban impacts     

Some features of soil organic matter in parks and adjacent residential areas of Moscow

The humus-accumulative horizons of soils from two natural-historical parks of Moscow and the adjacent residential areas were studied. An increase in the concentration of organic matter was observed in the soils of the residential areas. A tendency toward the formation of fulvate humus typical for southern taiga soils persisted in the low-carbonate nongleyed humus-accumulative horizons. At the same time, the transformation rate, character, and content of organic matter in the urban soils were strongly affected by the contamination, calcareous invasion, and remediation of the soils and sediments.     

Dynamics of the dispersity of model soddy-podzolic soils in a long-term lysimetric experiment

Changes in the particle-size composition and specific surface area were considered for soddy-podzolic soils in large lysimeters of the Soil Research Station of Moscow State University, which simulated anthropogenically modified soils with different sequences of genetic horizons in a long-term (1961–2002) experiment. Changes were detected in the degree of dispersion of the soil horizons occurring under conditions inadequate for their genesis: a decrease in the clay content by 7% and in the external specific surface area from 28.9 to 7.4% in the illuvial horizon placed on the surface and the accumulation of colloidal mineral fractions in the Ap horizon buried at a depth of 80–100 cm. The degree of change depended on the occurrence depth of the buried horizons and increased with approaching the surface. The changes in the dispersity of the model soddypodzolic soils in the lysimetric experiment were primarily due to the translocation of the fine fractions with vertical water flows. The long-term experiment carried out under completely controlled conditions showed that, at the initial functioning stages of the soils with anthropogenically modified profiles, this process was well detectable and significant for the monitoring studies.     

Anisotropy of the properties of some anthropogenically transformed soils of podzolic type

It is shown that the horizons and profiles of anthropogenically transformed soils of podzolic type—light typical agrozems, typical texture-differentiated soils developed from glaciolacustrine loamy sands and clays and from noncalcareous mantle loams, agrosoddy deeply podzolic soils developed from noncalcareous mantle loams, and agrosoddy shallow-podzolic soils developed from noncalcareous mantle loams and from calcareous loams underlain by ancient glaciolacustrine loams and clays—are characterized by some anisotropy of most of their properties. The highest anisotropy is typical of the field water content, bulk density, and total porosity. The coefficients of anisotropy (gradients) calculated for the separate horizons as the ratios between the values of the properties measured in the horizontal and vertical directions (k = P_horiz/P_vertic) of these properties are much higher than those of other soil properties. The coefficient of anisotropy of the soil profile (K) is suggested as the coefficient of correlation between the values of a given property determined in the horizontal and vertical soil sections. For the considered properties, K varies from 0.4 to 0.6. For other soils properties, such as the solid phase density, the electrical resistance determined in a laboratory and in the field, and the organic carbon content, the coefficients of anisotropy are close to 1.0. The clay content has an intermediate anisotropy. The values of anisotropy and its direction (gradient) should be taken into account upon the assessment of the soil physical properties and the processes controlling them; this is particularly important in the study of soil transformation. The revealed regularities of the soil anisotropy make it possible to suggest a new interpretation of the data on the distribution of water and energy in soil profiles.     

Macro- and micromorphological features of genetic horizons in a solonetzic soil complex at the Dzhanybek Research Station

The comparative analysis of macro- and microfabrics of soil horizons in a trench crossing a solonetzic soil complex on a virgin plot has shown incomplete correspondence between the macro- and micromorphological features. Solonetzic and solodic horizons and features are differently manifested in different types of soils. The soils of the complex are subjected to continuous transformation dictated by the general trend of the landscape evolution in the Caspian Lowland and by the local changes related to the activity of burrowing animals and fluctuations in the groundwater level. The current trends of evolutionary changes are reflected in the soil microfabrics and salt pedofeatures, whereas more ancient processes are recorded in the properties of the clayey plasma. In the soil of the microlow, the most complete correspondence between the macro- and micromorphological features is observed. At the microlevel, the horizons of this soil resemble the humus-accumulative and metamorphic horizons of dark-colored chernozem-like soils of vast mesodepressions. A variant of the soil evolution within the solonetzic complex is discussed.     

Physical properties of park soils of the objects of landscape architecture

Here the comparative characteristics of the physical properties of park soils, viz., anthropogenically transformed and engineered soils of the objects of landscape architecture, are given. The mechanical strength of aggregates, density, and aggregate physical properties to characterize the soil and agro-physical and environmental condition of soil objects of landscape architecture and establish the similarities or differences of engineered soil objects with zonal soils are described. We studied the physical properties of soils of different structural and functional elements of the landscape and the regular area of the Arkhangelskoe memorial estate. The structural state of the park soils is characterized as good. The engineered soils of the regular area of the park appear to have excessively high water resistance, while the postagrigenic sod-podzolic soils of the landscape area of the park are absolutely water resistant.     

Morphometric profiles of pore space in loamy soils of the forest and steppe zones of European Russia

A computer-based image analysis of vertically oriented thin sections was applied to study changes in the shape and orientation of fine soil macropores (d = 0.2−2.0 mm) in the profiles of soddy-podzolic soils and typical (migrational-mycelial) chernozems. Generalization of the obtained morphometric data was based on the theory of mereology, a scientific discipline studying the structure (part-whole relationships) of classified objects. As a first approximation, generalized data characterized archetypes of morphometric porespace profiles of the studied soils. The archetype of the pore-space profile of the soddy-podzolic soil consists of four components (meronyms) corresponding to the humus-accumulative, eluvial, textural (clay-illuvial), and transitional to the parent material (BC) horizons. Sharp boundaries between the upper horizons specify sharp changes in the studied meronomic indices of the shape and orientation of soil pores. The pore-space profile of the migrational-mycelial chernozem consists of two major components: specific pores in the granular dark-humus (AU) horizon and complex pore space of the BCA and BCca horizons that are poorly differentiated with respect to the shape and orientation of their fine macropores despite clear genetic differences between these horizons. Pore-space patterns in the lower (transitional to the parent material) horizons of the studied soils are characterized by the high degree of similarity (>75%). Pore-space patterns in the upper horizons of the studied soils are different; the level of their similarity does not exceed 24–41.5%. The results obtained in this study hold promise in the use of morphometric characteristics of the pore space in separate genetic soil horizons as meronyms composing archetypes of the pore-space profiles of different soils. Such archetypes may be used for diagnostic purposes as reference pore-space profiles of the particular types of soils.     

Electrical resistivity as a possible indicator cultivation of arable sandy soils of the humid zone

It is established that soils with different degrees of cultivation have distinctions not only in the morphological structure of a profile, but also in the capacities of anthropogenically transformed (arable) horizons, properties of soils that are reflected in the amounts of electrical resistivity of the soils defined both on a profile and in a vulgar measurement with the use of horizontal electrical resistivity. Accurate reduction of the amounts of electrical resistivity of soils with term increase cultivation is revealed in the middle of a range (0?C100 years) reflected in fertility improvement. The express method of electrical resistivity mapping is rather promising for evaluating changes in properties of sandy soils in humid zone during anthropogenic agricultural transformation.     

城郊结合区蔬菜种植地土壤性质特征

Human activity and urbanization result in urban-rural environmental gradients.Undersanding effect of the gradients on soil properties is necessary for management of the soils around urban areas.In this study,soil quality of some vegetable fields was characterized along an urban-rural gradient in shaoxing County,Zhejiang Province.Fifteen soilphysical and chemical properties were evaluated by using principal component analysis.Results showed that there was a great variation in the soil quality along the gradient.From rural to urban zones,soil organic matter,water-stable aggregates,cation exchangeable capacity(CEC),total N and P,and available K increased,whereas soil pH value decreased.In addition,Pb,Cu,Ni,Co,Zn and Cr in the soils tended to be accumulated toward the urban zone.Sequential chemical extraction showed that mobility of all the heavy metals in the soils tended toincrease from the rural to the urban zones.The variation of soil properties accounted for by the first principal component was significantly explained bythe difference in application rates of municipal wastes.     

Approaches toward soil mapping of urban territories with the city of perm as an example

The diversity of urban soils and technogenic surface formations (TSFs) in the city of Perm is predetermined by the diverse lithologic and geomorphic conditions; different types of land use (residential areas with low-rise and multistory buildings, industrial zones, and agricultural zones) further enhance it. The soil cover of Perm has a mosaic pattern with contrasting changes in the morphology and genesis of its components. The areas of separate soils and TSFs cannot be delineated upon medium- and even large-scale mapping of the territory. We suggest that urban pedocomplexes—combinations of soils and TSFs developing within a given functional zone of the city from the same parent materials—should be shown on the map. Urban pedocomplexes differ from one another in the character of the predominant soils and TSFs. They inherit some features from the natural soils and parent materials and are transformed under the impact of the major type of land use.     

Modern Azerbaijani soil classification system

A new soil classification system is elaborated on the basis of the legend to the soil map of Azerbaijan on a scale of 1: 100 000. The classification system includes above-type categories and a detailed list of anthropogenically transformed soils. It is based on the profile-genetic and evolutionary concepts. The soil classes (the highest taxon) include naturally developed, anthropogenically modified, and technogenically disturbed soils. The lists of soils of the first two classes are similar to those of the new Russian soil classification system, contrary to the class of technogenically disturbed soils, which is subdivided into soil orders with respect to the particular kinds of soil disturbance. The concept of soil types is generally preserved in the new classification. The diagnostics of soil types are based on the sequences of genetic horizons (types of soil profiles). The latter are used for finding proper correlation of the distinguished soil types with analogous soils in the WRB system.     

Characteristics of Clay Minerals in Podzols and Podzolic Soils

The clay minerals in Podzols and podzolic soils developed under coniferous forests in the Subarctic and Cool-temperate zones are characterized by the predominance of smectite and/or mica-smectite interstratified minerals in the eluvial horizons and chlorite-vermiculite intergrade in the illuvial horizons. A large amount of vermiculite is present in the eluvial horizons of some podzolic soils in the Cool-temperate zone. The illuvial horizons of these soils also contain free iron oxides such as goethite. Imogolite and allophane are present in the illuvial horizons of several soils derived from volcanic ashes. It is suggested that the critical bioclimate for the release of interlayered aluminum from the 2:1-type minerals lies between the Cool- and Warm-temperate zone. In the eluvial horizons of Podzols and podzolic soils, mica minerals and chlorite, as primary minerals, have been transformed to smectite through the pedogenic process. Based on previous studies on the structure and degradation of the dioctahedral mica minerals, it is considered that smectite is transformed from 1M-type mica minerals directly, and from 2M-type mica minerals via mica-smectite interstratifled minerals. The formation of a smectite lattice in the eluvial horizon should be a clay-mineralogical indicator of podzolization.     

Soil Cover of the Svetloyarsk Irrigation System after 50 Years of Reclamation Practices

The state of irrigated soils of the Svetloyarsk irrigation system (Volgograd oblast) after 50 years or irrigation and ameliorative impacts has been assessed with the use of published and new field data, cadastral materials, and remote sensing materials. In the recent two decades, the area of regular irrigation and the volume of irrigation water have decreased, which has led to the lowering of the groundwater level to the depth of 5 m and more. The pattern of sown areas is characterized by a rise in the portion of winter cereals. Surface planing during the construction of the irrigation system led to a considerable transformation of the soil cover. On convex elements, solonetzic and other topsoil horizons were almost completely cut off. In many areas, they were replaced by a mixture of different horizons, including carbonaceous material. There are now significant areas of soils of different geneses with carbonates from the surface. Former solonchakous and slightly solonchakous soils are now at the stage of deep desalinization: soluble salts in them have been washed to the second meter, where slightly or moderately saline horizons with a predominance of sulfates have been formed. Irrigated areas on satellite images are specified by spotty patterns differing from those of natural solonetzic soil complexes because of the significant transformation of the soil cover during the construction and operation of irrigation system. The anthropogenically transformed soils can be mapped. Soil maps reflecting the modern state of the of soil cover of irrigated areas are given.     

Changes in the biochemical characteristics of soils in the impact zone of the Kostomuksha Ore-Dressing enterprise

Special soil studies in the impact zone of the Kostomuksha Ore-Dressing enterprise were performed for the first time. The influence of the aerial pollution on the contents and composition of the free amino acids in the organic (forest litter) and mineral (podzolic) soil horizons was examined. An increase in the content of free amino acids in the soils near the pollution source was revealed. The content of amino acids in the organic soil horizons varied in dependence on the distance from the enterprise. The results obtained in this study may be used for the purposes of the biological diagnostics and monitoring of soils in the anthropogenically disturbed ecosystems of eastern Fennoscandia.