Transformation of carbonate pedofeatures in paleosols buried under kurgans in the North Caucasus region

Carbonate concentrations in a chronosequence of paleosols buried under kurgans in the North Caucasus region at the end of the 4th century and the first half of the 5th century AD have been studied with the use of a set of morphological and isotopic methods. It is demonstrated that morphologically different phases of calcite—the collomorphic phase and the crystalline phase—in carbonate pedofeatures (calcareous pseudomycelium) and in the calcareous horizon have different elemental compositions and different isotopic compositions of carbon. Hence, these forms of calcite should have different origins. An addition of colloidal carbonates migrating in colloidal solutions from the lower soil horizons to the surface horizons during the periods of climatic aridization to the acicular calcite may be responsible for a sharp and irregular increase in the radiocarbon age of the newly formed carbonate pseudomycelium.     

Buried paleosols of the Upper Paleolithic multilayered site Kostenki-1

The morphology and chemical and physicochemical properties of paleosols buried at the Upper Paleolithic multilayered site Kostenki-1 in Kostenki–Borshchevo district of Voronezh oblast were studied. Four in situ paleosols formed 20–40(45) ka ago were separated in the archaeological excavation. Together with the surface soils, they characterized two different epochs of pedogenesis—the interstadial and interglacial (Holocene) epochs—and three shorter cycles of pedogenesis. The traces of human occupation in the studied hollow in the Late Paleolithic were found in the layers corresponding to the interstadial epoch. The buried paleosols had a simple horizonation: A(W)–C. A shallow thickness of the soil profiles could be due to relatively short periods of pedogenesis and to the shallow embedding by the carbonate geochemical barrier. The degree of the organic matter humification in the paleosols varied from 0.6 to 1.5, which corresponded to the mean duration of the period of biological activity of 60 to 150 days per year characterizing the climatic conditions of the tundra, taiga, forest-steppe, and steppe natural zones. In the excavation Kostenki-1 (2004–2005), soil–sediment sequences composed of five series of lithological layers with soil layers on top of them were found. Their deposition proceeded in two phases—the water phase and the aerial phase—that predetermined the morphology and composition of the soil–sediment sequences. The history of sediment accumulation in the studied hollow consisted of five stages. Similar morphologies and compositions of the soil–sediment sequences corresponding to these stages attest to the cyclic pattern of their development. The stages of sedimentation and soil formation corresponded to cyclic climate fluctuations with changes in the temperature and moisture conditions. A comparative analysis of the morphology and properties of the paleosols and soil–sediment sequences made it possible to characterize the environmental conditions of ancient humans and the dynamics of the climate during the past 50 ka.     

Buried late holocene paleosols of the nienshants cultural-historical monument in St. Petersburg

Buried Late Holocene paleosols of the Nienshants historical monument at the junction of the Neva and Okhta rivers (St. Petersburg) have been studied. These soils developed from estuary deposits of the Littorina basin with abundant artifacts of the Neolithic and Early Iron ages (7–2 ka BP). The soil cover of the area consists of the mature dark-humus profile-gleyed soils on elevated elements of the mesotopography (3.0–3.5 a.s.l.) and dark-humus gley soils in the local depressions (2.0–2.6 m a.s.l.). The soils are characterized by the low to moderate content of humus of the fulvate-humate type. The beginning of humus formation in the dark-humus gley soil on the slope facing the Neva River is estimated at about 2600 yrs ago; for the darkhumus profile-gleyed soils of the studied paleocatena, at about 2000 and 1780 yrs ago; and for the darkhumus gley soil, at about 1440 years ago. Judging from the spore-pollen spectra, the development of these soils took place in the Subatlantic period under birch and pine-birch forests with the admixture of spruce and alder trees. The gleyed horizons of the buried soil at the depth of 1.6–1.2 m on the Neva-facing slope date back to the Late Subboreal period (2500–2600 yrs ago), when pine-birch-spruce forests were widespread in the area. The new data contribute to our knowledge of the environmental conditions during the Neolithic and Iron ages.     

Variations in the Properties of Chernozems and Paleoenvironmental Conditions in the North Caucasus in the 4th Millennium BC according to the Results of the Study of Essentuksky 1 Kurgan

Eurasian Soil Science - A short-term chronosequence of paleosols buried under different structures in the big Essentuksky 1 kurgan (North Caucasus) was studied. The kurgan was constructed in the...     

Specific features of paleosols of burial mounds involved in current farming practices and their contemporary pedogenesis (using the early Alanian burial mounds in the North Caucasus region as an example)

Paleosols of three burial sites—Brut 1, Brut 2, and Beslan—in the Northern Osetia Republic (Alania) of the North Caucasus region were studied. A part of the Brut 2 burial site was subjected to intensive agricultural use (more than 30-year-long irrigation and regular tillage). This led to the leveling of the burial mounds and changes in some properties of the buried paleosols. A comparative analysis of paleosols of the same age under the burial mounds involved not included in the intensive agricultural use made it possible to determine the degree of preservation of the initial properties in the irrigated paleosols and to use them for reconstruction of the paleoclimates. Some specific features of the soil evolution were revealed, and paleoclimate reconstructions were performed for the period of the Early Alan civilization in the North Caucasus region (from the second half of the 2nd century AD to the middle of the 5th century AD).     

Assessment of phenotypic variation of Malus orientalis in the North Caucasus region

Malus orientalis Uglitzk. is the predominant Malus species of the Caucasian forests distributed in the north of Anatolia, Armenia, Russia as well as in Iran. It is considered as one of the probable minor ancestors of domestic apples. Although M. orientalis has a lower diversity of fruit quality, other valuable traits such as later blooming, adaptation to a wider array of habitats, and capacity for longer storage of the apples should be taken into account for improving the genetic makeup of the domestic apple. A joint expedition of scientists of the Julius Kühn-Institute from Germany and the Nikolaj I. Vavilov Research Institute of Plant Industry from Russia was performed into the North Caucasus region during August/September 2011. Altogether 101 M. orientalis accessions were collected from eight sites at the North Caucasus. Twenty-six traits such as size, color, shape, flavor and firmness of fruit and tree habit were used for phenotypic evaluation of the accessions. A high phenotypic diversity within the collected material of M. orientalis was indicated. Accessions characterized by suitable fruit traits like bigger size, larger cover color, less bitterness and better firmness as well as more sweetness and better flavor were found. However, small-sized flavorless fruits were also detected. Tree habit varied widely from upright to weeping. Subsequently, a comprehensive phenotypic and genetic evaluation of M. orientalis increases the knowledge of diversity, may provide new resources of agronomically important traits for breeding purposes, and gives support to determine accessions for a core collection.     

Mountainous meadow chernozem-like soils of high mountains in the North Caucasus region

Original and literature data on the soil-forming conditions and the morphology, physicochemical properties, and bulk chemical and mineralogical composition of mountainous meadow chernozem-like soils of the North Caucasus region indicate that these soils are developed from the coarse-textured pebbly colluvium of calcareous bedrock under the impact of humus accumulation and clay formation. The intensity of these processes is directly related to the activity of soil biota. Suggestions aimed at improving the classification of high-mountain soils are discussed.     

Complex of solonetzes and vertic chestnut soils in the manych-gudilo depression

Morphological, physicochemical, and isotopic properties of a two-member soil complex developed under dry steppe have been studied in the central part of the Manych Depression. The soils are formed on chocolate-colored clayey sediments, and have pronounced microrelief and the complex vegetation pattern. A specific feature of the studied soil complex is the inverse position of its components: vertic chestnut soil occupies the microhigh, while solonetz is in the microlow. The formation of such complexes is explained by the biological factor, i.e., by the destruction of the solonetzic horizon under the impact of vegetation and earth-burrowing animals with further transformation under steppe plants and dealkalinization of the soil in the microhighs. The manifestation of vertic features and shrink-swell process in soils of the complex developing in dry steppe are compared with those in the vertic soils of the Central Pre-Caucasus formed under more humid environment. It is supposed that slickensides in the investigated vertic chestnut soil are relict feature inherited from the former wetter stage of the soil development and are subjected to a gradual degradation at present. In the modern period, vertic processes are weak and cannot be distinctly diagnosed. However, their activation may take place upon an increase of precipitation or the rise in the groundwater level.     

Particle-size distribution patterns in Vertisols and vertic soils of Russia

Five variants of the distribution of clay (<0.001 mm) and physical clay (<0.01 mm) fractions along the vertical profiles of Vertisols (slitozems) and vertic soils (slitic subtypes of different soil types) from the European part of Russia are distinguished: (1) accumulative, (2) even, (3) regressive, (4) with a maximum in the middle-profile horizon and with their approximately equal contents in the upper and the lower horizons, and (5) eluvial–illuvial. These distribution patterns are related to the lithological specificity of sedimentation and formation of parent materials composed of swelling clays of different geneses and ages. Solonetzic, eluvial- gley, and solodic processes contribute to the development of the eluvial–illuvial and, partly, regressive variants of clay distribution. All the five variants with a predominance of the even distribution pattern can be found in Vertisols. Most of Vertisols in the European part of Russia have a medium clayey or a heavy clayey texture in the entire profile. The regressive distribution pattern is typical of the group of vertic soils. In the upper horizons of Vertisols, where slickensides do not form, the texture is usually heavier than that in the analogous horizons of vertic soils. The middle-profile and lower horizons with slickensides have similar statistical distributions of particle-size fractions in Vertisols proper and in vertic soils. However, in Vertisols, a tendency for a more frequent occurrence of the soils with a higher content of the clay fraction and with a higher portion of this fraction in the physical clay fraction is observed (as compared with the vertic soils).     

Evolution of soils and dynamics of the climate of steppes in the southeast of the russian plain during the late eneolithic and bronze ages (fourth to second millennia BC)

On the basis of studies of subkurgan pedochronoseries, the main mechanisms of the development of soils of arid and desert steppes in drained landscapes of the southeastern Russian plain in the Late Eneolithic and Bronze ages (6000−3000 years ago) were established. During the fourth to third millennia BC, evolution of soils took place at the level of subtypes with a shift of boundaries of soil subzones toward the north. In each of the studied natural regions (Central Russian Upland, Volga Upland, Ergeni Hills, and Caspian Depression), an increase in the aridization of the climate in the second half of the third millennium BC can be distinctly traced, owing to which a convergence of the topsoil with the transformation of dark-chestnut, chestnut, and light-chestnut soils in chestnut-like semiarid soils, which dominated the region 4200–3900 years ago, occurred. In the first half of the second millennium BC, another change in the conditions of soil formation occurred that was caused by an increase in the degree of atmospheric humidity. It induced the divergence of the topsoil with a secondary formation of areas of zonal chestnut soils and solonetzes in place of chestnut-like soils by the middle of the second millennium BC. The obtained data gives reason to suggest that the age of modern chestnut solonetz complexes of the region does not exceed 3500 years.     

Effects on soil properties of vertic movements in Calcisols from southern Spain

The analytical, mineralogical and micromorphological characteristics of Calcisols are studied here, in order to improve their genesis and influence in soil properties. Two main features stand out: one being of a colluvial nature, consisting molasses and bioclastic molasses (postorogenic marine detrital sediments whose origin is the upper-middle Miocene) over primitive haplic Vertisols, with appearance of subsurface gilgai microrelief, non visible from the ground and, the other, being the appearance of a calcic horizon resulting from the leaching and translocation of carbonates proceeding from the colluvial material. The former Vertisol had suffer an erosion process which removed its A horizon and later was produced new material deposition. The deposited carbonated material was loose, becoming soils in Calcisols. As a result of the vertic movements, the subsurface gilgai in the boundary between the new deposited and former material, which remains buried, show the higher degree of undulation in front of non buried Vertisols, by polynomial equations.     

Microbiological investigations of paleosols of archeological monuments in the steppe zone

Microbiological studies of the paleosols of archeological monuments (burial mounds) of the Neolithic, Bronze, Early Iron, and Middle Ages (the fourth millennium BC to the fourteenth century AD) located in the dry and desert steppe of the Lower Volga River basin were conducted. The microbial communities that existed at the time of creating the burial mounds were shown to be preserved up to the present time. This fact was confirmed by the regularities of the distribution of the microorganisms in the “mound-buried soil” system and by the data on the determination of the age for the microbial fraction of the paleosols using the method of ¹⁴C atomic mass spectrometry. The total biomass of the microbial communities in the paleosols amounted to 20–40% of the microbial biomass in their background analogues. In all the paleosols, a special pool of viable microorganisms was present. In the microbial community of the paleosols, the biomass of the active microorganisms corresponded to 0.30–41.0% of the biomass in the present-day soil; the content of mycelium of microscopic fungi composed 43–50% of that in the recent soil. In the mycelium structure in the paleosols, the share of the dark-colored mycelium increased to 98–100%. The microbiological parameters that give a contrasting characterization of the state of the microbial communities in the soils during the arid and humid climatic periods were revealed. The changes of the arid and humid climatic epochs were reflected in the structure of the microbial communities in the paleosols at the ecological-trophic, metabolic, and genetic levels.     

陕北风沙滩地区紫花苜蓿地下滴灌带埋设深度初步研究

研究了半干旱沙区不同滴灌带埋设深度下紫花苜蓿的生长特性。通过试验研究分析了滴灌带埋设深度对紫花苜蓿植株高度、茎粗、分枝数、根系生长、根系密度和产量等生长特性的影响。采用主成分分析法对不同滴灌带埋设深度的紫花苜蓿等生长特性进行了综合评价。结果表明,滴灌带不同埋设深度对苜蓿各个生育期生长特性指标影响不同。在苗期,埋设深度为10cm的处理,有利于苜蓿生长。从分枝期起,埋设深度为30cm的处理优于其它处理;在整个生育期内,不同埋设深度对苜蓿生长特性影响的综合评判结果为：埋深30cm〉埋深20cm〉埋深10cm〉埋深40cm。     

Changes in clay minerals of vertic chernozems under the impact of different ameliorants in a model experiment

The interaction of different ameliorants and fertilizers with the solid phase of clayey vertic chernozems was studied in a model experiment. Changes in the organization and properties of the mineral mass from the plow horizon under the impact of ameliorants took place at several hierarchical levels. At the level of soil aggregates, both the disaggregation of the soil mass and the formation of agronomically valuable soil aggregates under the impact of different ameliorants were observed. The method of fractional peptization of the soil mass was applied to study the behavior of clay minerals. The specificity of the crystallochemistry of smectitic minerals and their changes under the impact of introduced substances were studied in different fractions of clay.     

Permian paleosols in relation to general issues of paleopedology

The study of Upper Permian paleosols in the eastern part of the Russian Plain enables us to consider general problems, like interrelation of pedogenic and lithogenic memory, the development of Pre-Quaternary loess-paleosol series, the use of red beds as a paleogeographic archive, the paleoenvironmental reconstructions based on the study of paleosols, pedostratigraphy, and the relationships between pedogenesis and sedimentation.     

Effect of addition of various carbon substrates on denitrification in a vertic Mollisol

Summary Glucose, acetate, malate, and citrate were added to an agricultural soil. The pe values (-log e^-; calculated from the redox potential) obtained 30 min after the addition of C were not correlated with the theoretical reducing power nor with the theoretical total energy of the C compounds. By contrast the number of electron (e^-) equivalents was correlated with pe⁷, indicating that the proton number affected the redox potential (Eh) measurement. After 24 h of incubation, denitrification rates followed the order citrate>malate>glucose and control. No N₂O production was detected with acetate. Denitrification was not correlated with the theoretical reducing power of the added C compounds but was correlated with pe+pH. Similar numbers of e^- equivalents were measured with all treatments. After 72 h of incubation, the order of the denitrification rates was malate>citrate >acetate>glucose and control. The Eh values (lower than after 24h) did not differ with treatment while the number of e^- equivalents was influenced by the quality of the C source. This also demonstrates that the proton number affected the measured Eh. Our results suggest that the different C substrates did not directly influence the soil physicochemical and biological conditions through their degree of oxidation. Any effects appeared to be indirect, arising from the ability of the substrates to generate new metabolites, and consequently initiate different metabolic pathways that modified the soil physicochemical conditions, reducing power and microbial activity.     

Mountain-meadow soils of the highlands in the Western Caucasus

The published and author’s data on soil-forming conditions, morphology, substance composition and physicochemical properties, total chemical and mineralogical composition, and micromorphology of mountain-meadow soils of the Western Caucasus Range are analyzed. On the basis of the analytical data obtained, the transformation of minerals and features of chemical element profile patterns developed in the course of soil formation are characterized. The main processes accompanying the transformation of mineral and organic parts of the soil mass and migration of soil-formation products are described. Soil formation is shown to be accompanied by two major elementary soil processes developing with participation of soil biota: humus accumulation and clay formation. Ways to improve the classification of mountain-meadow soils are proposed.     

Humus in paleosols of archaeological monuments in the dry steppes of the Volga-Don interfluve

Traditional chemical methods and ¹³C-NMR spectroscopy were used to study the humus in chestnut paleosols buried under kurgans of different ages (the 16th–15th centuries BC; the 1st, 2nd–3rd, and 13th–14th centuries AD) and under the Anna Ioanovna Rampart (1718–1720) and in their recent analogues on virgin plots. It was found that the decrease in the humus content of the paleosols as a result of the diagenetic processes is exponentially related to the age of the soil burial. The loss of humus from the upper 30 cm of the paleosol buried 3500 yrs ago amounted to 76 ± 14%, and this system did not reach a stationary state. The constants of the humus mineralization in the paleosols were determined. A tendency for an increase in the degree of the organic matter humification in the chestnut soils during the past 3500 yrs was found. With an increase in the age of the burial, the portion of aromatic structures in the structure of the humic acids increased and the portion of aliphatic fragments decreased. The cyclic changes in the composition of the humus related to the secular variations in the climatic humidity were identified.     

Isotopic composition of sulfur from sulfates in loess sediments of the North Caucasus and adjacent regions as an indicator of the genesis of salts

Isotopic composition of sulfur from sulfates in loess sediments of the North Caucasus region was studied. It proved to be very homogenous within the vertical soil-loess sequences and in the lateral direction: the δ³⁴S values in the studied samples varied from 7.8 to 8.3‰. The origin of sulfates in the soil-loess sequences is related to their deposition from different sources in solonchaks of the Black Sea-Caspian region with further mixing of sulfur and its eolian transport toward the areas of loess deposition. The gypsiferous horizons of studied soils were formed under the impact of the eluvial-illuvial redistribution of salts deposited from the atmosphere onto the soil surface.