Dark gray soils on two-layered deposits in the north of Tambov Plain: Agroecology, properties, and diagnostics

Dark gray soils in the Tambov Plain are developed from the light-textured glaciofluvial deposits underlain by the calcareous loam. Their morphology, water regime, and productivity are determined by the depth of the slightly permeable calcareous loamy layer, relief, and the degree of gleyzation. The light texture of the upper layer is responsible for its weak structure, high density, the low content of productive moisture, and the low water-holding capacity. If the calcareous loam is at a depth of 100?C130 cm, dark gray soils are formed; if it lies at a depth of 40?C70 cm, temporary perched water appears in the profile, and dark gray contact-gleyed soils are formed. Their characteristic pedofeatures are skeletans in the upper layers, calcareous nodules in the loamy clay layer, and iron nodules in the podzolized humus and podzolic horizons. The appearance of Fe-Mn concretions is related to gleyzation. The high yield of winter cereals is shown to be produced on the dark gray soils; the yields of spring crops are less stable. Spring cereals should not be grown on the contact-gleyed dark gray soils.     

Genesis,hydrology, and properties of soils in mesodepressions waterlogged by surface water in the northern Ryazan forest-steppe

On the interfluves and in small depressions of the Ryazan forest-steppe, under periodic stagnation of surface water, acid chernozem-like soils with a relatively thick humus horizon, podzolic horizons, and marble-colored gleyed B1 and B2 horizons are formed. The eluvial horizons of these soils contain Mn-Fe nodules, and dark humus coatings occur in the illuvial horizons. In the spring, the eluvial horizons of these soils are excessively moistened and gravitational water stagnates on the soil surface for 3–4 weeks. The formation of the acid light-colored eluvial horizons of the soils on leached rocks is related to gleying under the conditions of the stagnant-percolative regime. Their total thickness is 15–25 cm and more. According to the properties of their solid phase, these horizons are similar to the podzolic horizons of soddy-podzolic gleyed soils. These soils have not been represented in the classification systems of soils of the USSR and Russia. Based on the principles of the substantial-genetic classification, one of the authors of this article [9] referred this soil to gleyed podzolic chernozem-like soils, thus, considering it as an individual genetic soil type. The gleyed podzolic chernozem-like soils differ from the leached chernozems by their low productivity and difficulty of tillage. In humid and moderately moist years, the death of crops or a reduction in yield are probable because of the excess of moisture.     

Neoformations (Nodules and Placic Layers) in Surface-Gleyed Loamy Sandy Soils of the Northern Part of the Tambov Plain

Eurasian Soil Science - In the middle part of the profiles of light gray soils (non-gleyed, deeply gleyed, weakly and strongly gleyed) on silty loamy sandy two-layered deposits of the river...     

Assessment of agronomic homogeneity and compatibility of soils in the Vladimir Opolie region

Complexes of gray forest soils of different podzolization degrees with the participation of gray forest podzolized soils with the second humus horizon play a noticeable role in the soil cover patterns of Vladimir Opolie. The agronomic homogeneity and agronomic compatibility of gray forest soils in automorphic positions (“plakor” sites) were assessed on the test field of the Vladimir Agricultural Research Institute. The term “soil homogeneity” implies in our study the closeness of crop yield estimates (scores) for the soil polygons; the term “soil compatibility” implies the possibility to apply the same technologies in the same dates for different soil polygons within a field. To assess the agronomic homogeneity and compatibility of soils, the statistical analysis of the yields of test crop (oats) was performed, and the spatial distribution of the particular parameters of soil hydrothermic regime was studied. The analysis of crop yields showed their high variability: the gray forest soils on microhighs showed the minimal potential fertility, and the maximal fertility was typical of the soils with the second humus horizon in microlows. Soils also differed significantly in their hydrothermic regime, as the gray forest soils with the second humus horizon were heated and cooled slower than the background gray forest soils; their temperature had a stronger lag effect and displayed a narrower amplitude in seasonal fluctuations; and these soils were wetter during the first weeks (40 days) of the growing season. Being colder and wetter, the soils with the second humus horizons reached their physical ripeness later than the gray forest soils. Thus, the soil cover of the test plot in the automorphic position is heterogeneous; from the agronomic standpoint, its components are incompatible.     

Chemical properties of soils in closed depressions of the northern Tambov Plain

Chemical properties of chernozem-like soils in closed depressions on different relief elements in the northern part of the Tambov Plain differ significantly. The soils with podzolic features in depressions on the watershed have a high acidity and a low degree of base saturation. The soils on the above-floodplain terrace are neutral and saturated with bases. When the degree of moistening increases, the share of magnesium in the total exchangeable bases increases to 30–35%. In the soils of surface flooding under gleyzation conditions, iron is leached from the fine earth, and iron nodules are formed. In the soils formed under the impact of groundwater, iron diffusion is observed in the surface layers. In the podzolic horizons of soils on the watershed, humus acquires a fulvic-humic character. In the soils formed under the impact of groundwater and water stagnation conditions typical for gleyed soils, the Cha: Cfa ratio is higher than 1.     

Soils of paleocryogenic hummocky-hollow landscapes in the southern Baikal region

The features of ancient periglacial phenomena are widespread in landscapes lying beyond the modern permafrost zone. The specificity of the paleogeographic conditions in the south of the Baikal region resulted in the formation of paleocryogenic landscapes with hummocky-hollow landforms. The paleocryogenic mounds (hummocks) are of rounded or elongated shape, their height is up to 2–3 m, and their width is up to 20–25 m. They are separated by microlows (hollows). This paleocryogenic microtopography favors the differentiation of the pedogenesis on the mounds and in the hollows, so the soil cover pattern becomes more complicated. It is composed of polychronous soils organized in complexes with cyclic patterns. Light gray and gray forest soils and leached and ordinary chernozems are developed on the mounds; gray and dark gray forest soils and chernozems with buried horizons are developed in the hollows. The soils of the paleocryogenic complexes differ from one another in their morphology, physical and chemical properties, elemental composition, and humus composition. For the first time, radiocarbon dates have been obtained for the surface and buried humus horizons in the hollows. The results prove the heterochronous nature of the soils of the paleocryogenic landscapes in the south of the Baikal region.     

Morphology,Radiocarbon Age,and Genesis of Vertisols of the Eisk Peninsula (the Kuban–Azov Lowland)

Data on the morphology and radiocarbon ages of humus of dark vertic quasigley nonsaline clayey soils with alternating bowl-shaped (Pellic Vertisols (Humic, Stagnic)) and diapiric (Haplic Vertisols (Stagnic, Protocalcic)) structures are discussed, and the genetic concept for these soils is suggested. The studied soils develop on loesslike medium clay in the bottom of a large closed depression on the Eisk Peninsula in the lowest western part of the Kuban–Azov Lowland. The lateral and vertical distribution of humus in the studied gilgai catena displays a lateral transition of a relatively short humus profile of the accumulative type with a maximum near the surface and with a sharp increase in ¹⁴C dates of humus in the deeper layers within the diapiric structure to the extremely deep humus profile with a maximum at the depth of 40–80 cm, with similar mean residence time of carbon within this maximum, and with a three times slower increase in ¹⁴C dates of humus down the profile within the bowl-shaped structure. The development of the gilgai soil combination is specified by the joint action of the lateral–upward squeezing of the material of the lower horizons from the nodes with an increased horizontal stress toward the zones a decreased horizontal stress, local erosional loss of soil material from the microhighs and its accumulation in the adjacent microlows, leaching of carbonates from the humus horizons in the microlows, and the vertical and lateral ascending capillary migration of the soil solutions with precipitation of calcium carbonates in the soils of microhighs.     

Solods of the Baraba Lowland and the Priobskoe Plateau: Their properties and genesis and the methods of their diagnostics

The properties, hydrological features, and genesis of the solods occurring in the Baraba Lowland and Priobskoe Plateau were studied. Methods for determining the hydromorphism degree are considered; the features of the similarity and differences between the solods and other soils with textural profile differentiation are shown. Depending on the reasons for the waterlogging, the solods should be divided into two groups: the solods of groundwater waterlogging and the solods of surface waterlogging. Criteria for their discrimination are suggested: the ratio between the contents of the clay fraction in the parent rock (or in the B2 horizon) and that in the A2 horizon, the changes in the pH values along the soil profiles, and the content of nonsilicate iron compounds. The solods studied are shown to be formed under the conditions of a stagnant-percolative regime and gleying. This circumstance is an obligatory and sufficient reason for the formation of the light-colored acid eluvial (A2) horizons. According to some basic properties of the soil solid phase (the acidity, the total chemical composition, and the clay pattern in the eluvial part), the gleyed solods are close or identical to the gleyed soddy-podzolic and gleyed chernozem-like podzolic soils. At the same time, the solods differ from the gleyed chernozem-like podzolic soils by their thicker A1 (or Ap) horizon and their higher humus content (5–7%).     

Concretions in typical chernozem,gleyed chernozem-like,and solonetzic chernozem-like soils of the southern Tambov Lowland

A system for the diagnostics of chernozemic soils of the Tambov Lowland based on concretions is proposed for agricultural and reclamation purposes. The relationships between the structure and composition of the carbonate concretions, the long-term water regime of the soils, and the productivity of the crops have been established. The dense concretions in the typical chernozem testify to the depth of the seasonal wetting; the angular-rounded concretions in the deeply gleyed chernozem-like soil, to the upper boundary of the capillary fringe; and the angular concretions with sharp edges and cavities in the gleyic chernozem-like soils, to the groundwater table. In the chernozem-like soils that were waterlogged with bicarbonate-sodium water, the black angular concretions were formed in the solonetzic horizons, while the weakly compacted light-colored ones, in the zone of the capillary fringe. Humic acids were responsible for the color of the dark neoformations, and fulvic acids predominated in the light-colored ones. The appearance of black fine nodules indicated periodic surface water stagnation. Manganese predominantly accumulates in these nodules. The structure of the Mn-Fe concretions in the plow horizon observed at a magnification of 40–50 times has a diagnostic importance. The short-term (2–3 weeks) water stagnation leads to the formation of fine-stratified concretions, and the long-term (up to 1.5 months) stagnation promotes the formation of uniform porous ones. The solonetzic process induced by the bicarbonate-sodium water results in the appearance of mottled concretions.     

Palevye (pale) soils of Central Yakutia: Genetic specificity,properties, and classification

Permafrost-affected palevye (pale) soils of Central Yakutia are developed from mantle calcareous deposits of different textures and are characterized by the common mica-chloritic association of clay minerals with a higher content of chlorite in comparison with the soils developed from mantle loams and loess-like loams in the European part of Russia. In the pale soils, the distribution of clay minerals in the profile has an even pattern in the loamy variants and a differentiated pattern typical of podzols in the loamy sandy variants. Data on the chemical extracts and Mössbauer spectroscopy indicate that the iron in the pale soils is mainly fixed in silicate minerals. The content of nonsilicate iron represented by the amorphous and weakly crystallized compounds in the pale soils is relatively low. The humus-accumulative horizon in these soils is close to the gray-humus (soddy) AY horizon according to its acid-base characteristics (the soil pH and the degree of base saturation) despite the presence of exchangeable sodium and the shallow occurrence of the calcareous horizon.     

Lessivage and its relation to the hydrological regime of soils

By the examples of four typical catenas in the East European Plain, the role of lessivage in the development of automorphic and hydromorphic loamy and clayey soils with light-colored acid eluvial horizons and with different degrees of gleyzation has been studied. It is found that characteristic features of lessivage are often observed in the soils without hydrological barriers hampering or preventing the vertical migration of soil water and mass transfer processes. The hydrological barriers may be represented by the shallow horizons of temporarily perched water, or by the ascending capillary fringe of the ground water, or by the water-saturated horizons, in which the volume of free pores does not exceed 2–4%. It is shown that light-colored acid eluvial horizons may be formed in the profiles of loamy and clayey soils without any signs of lessivage. The development of strongly gleyed soils (gleyed soddy-podzolic soils and pseudogley soils (Stagnosols)) is not related to colmatage (silting of their illuvial horizons through lessivage); it is conditioned by the actual hydrological regime of these soils. The role of lessivage, podzolization, and gleyzation in the development of clay-differentiated soils is discussed.     

Morphological and chemical properties of the meadow-semidesert soil complexes of the Khaki playa (the Caspian Lowland) and the influence of the biogenic factor on them

The initial stage of the development of the complex soil cover pattern in the Caspian Lowland was studied. The obtained data made it possible to reveal the specific features of the morphological and chemical properties of the soils on terraces of the Khaki playa and the role of burrowing animals in the formation of the microtopography and complex soil cover patterns on the youngest surfaces. The soil cover of the studied area consists of three-component complexes: light-humus quasi-gley solonetzes on relatively flat background surfaces, zooturbated solonetzes on microhighs, and humus quasi-gley soils in microlows. The layered deposits of the Khaki playa terraces and the shallow depth of the saline groundwater are responsible for the specificity of the modern salinization of the studied solonetzes. The distribution of the salts in their profiles has a sawshaped patter, which is related to the nonuniform texture of the deposits. On the microhighs composed of the earth extracted from 5- to 7-year-old suslik burrows, specific zooturbated solonetzes are formed. The known age of these formations makes it possible to determine the rate of the desalinization of the gypsum- and salt-bearing material extracted onto the soil surface and the rate of the salt accumulation in the lower part of the solonetzic horizon and in the subsolonetzic horizons in comparison with the data on the solonetzes of the background flat surfaces. The specific features of the soils in the closed microlows suggest that these soils have a polygenetic origin. The features of the recent hydromorphism predetermine the specificity of their morphology.     

Ecological-hydrological and genetic features of the soils of the Tambov Plain

Specific features of the genesis of chernozem-like, solonetzic chernozem-like soils, and hydromorphic chernozem-like solonetzes were investigated on the southern Tambov Plain. Typical chernozems occupy well drained areas. The yield of cereals is limited by the amount of precipitation. On the flat surface of weakly drained watersheds, deeply gleyed chernozem-like soils are formed under the influence of bicarbonate-calcium ground water and water stagnation on the plow sole. In closed depressions with the 1.5- to 2.0-month long stagnation of surface water on the compact lower horizons, podzolized gleyic chernozem-like soils are formed. They have favorable physical properties, weak eluvial differentiation, and rather high acidity. In humid and moderately humid years, the cereals on these soils are waterlogged; in dry years, their yield increases by 20% as compared to that on the typical chernozem. In the low undrained areas of the watersheds, solonetzic chernozem-like soils and hydromorphic chernozem-like solonetzes are formed under the influence of bicarbonate-sodium water. Despite the unfavorable physical properties of the solonetzic horizons, their better supply with moisture determines the possibility to obtain stable high yields of cereals on the solonetzic chernozem-like soils. The productivity of the gleyic chernozem-like solonetzes is low irrespective of the humidity of the year.     

Lateral flow in loamy to sandy Kandiudults of the Upper Coastal Plain of Georgia (USA)

Interest in site-specific agronomic management in intensively cropped regions necessitates characterization of subsurface water movement for efficient water management (irrigation timing) and control of off-site agrichemical movement. Soils formed in fluvial sediments in portions of the Upper Coastal Plain of Georgia (USA) are extensively used for peanut, cotton, and corn production. Certain proximate soils in this region possess contrasting subsoil properties, and it was hypothesized that these differences would have major effects on water redistribution across the landscape. This could be important in irrigation management, where soils possessing increased impedance to vertical flow could require decreased irrigation as opposed to soils without vertical flow restrictions. At a site near Plains, GA. (USA), hydraulic properties of soils with differences in overlying sand thickness and contrasting argillic horizon textures (sandy vs. loamy) were evaluated. The soils were predominantly in loamy and sandy families of Typic, Arenic, and Grossarenic Kandiudults. Laboratory measurements, field monitoring of matric potentials under simulated and natural rainfall, and modeling (VS2DT) were utilized to evaluate soil hydraulic properties. Reduction in vertical K_s occurred in horizons containing higher clay (argillic horizon). Changes in tension and build ups in hydraulic gradients associated with infiltration and redistribution events existed above and within horizons with low K_s. Evidence suggested there was less groundwater recharge occurring in the loamy than in the sandy pedons, suggesting more pronounced lateral flow occurred in the loamier soils. Model simulations of water movement across a slightly sloping (1%) simulated landscape indicated lateral gradients of flow existed within the solum of these soils. Analyses of tracer (Br) movement suggested a very slight lateral redistribution occurred within a relatively short monitoring period within the sandy pedon's Bt1 horizon, and the Bt2 and Bt3 horizons of the loamy pedon. Evidence suggested both loamy and sandy argillic horizons slightly, but not overwhelmingly, induced lateral flow on these landscapes.     

Soils of the Summer Garden (Saint Petersburg)

Soils of the Summer Garden—the first regular (French-style) garden in Russia—are characterized on the basis of the materials of field study performed during reconstruction of the garden in 2005–2011. Most of these soils are filled soils—urbostratozems—underlain by the loamy sands deposited in the Littorina Sea or by the buried gray-humus gleyic and gleyed soils. Urbostratozems are characterized by the slightly acid reaction in the topsoil horizons and slightly alkaline reaction in the middle-profile and lower horizons. The humus content in them varies from 0.2 to 6.8%; in the buried gray-humus soils, it is within 1.3–2.6%. The soils of the garden are characterized by the high and extremely high content of available phosphorus and the predominantly low content of available potassium as determined by Machigin’s method. The bulk content of Pb in the surface soil horizons during the period of our study exceeded the maximum permissible concentration by 3–20 times; the bulk contents of Cu and Zn exceeded the tentative permissible concentrations for coarse-textured soils by 2–6 and 4–20 times, respectively. The main sources of the soil contamination by the heavy metals are the nearby highways. Local contaminated area was also found near the household yard.     

Humus pedorelicts in soddy calcareous soils of the Vyatka-Kama interfluve

A plowed soddy-calcareous soil with relict features developed from Permian clayey calcareous soil was described for the first time in the area of soddy-podzolic and gray forest soils of mixed forests in the middle and lower riches of the Vyatka River. This soil was thoroughly examined by physical, chemical, biochemical, radioisotope, and physicochemical methods. A second humus horizon enriched in calcium humates was described in this soil. Its age was determined at about 7200 yrs. This horizon attests to the presence of in situ postcarbonate pedorelicts in the soil cover of the eastern Russian Plain. The studied soil was formed during the Atlantic optimum of the Holocene under conditions more favorable to humus-accumulative processes as compared with those during the subsequent period. The soil evolution in the second part of the Holocene was characterized by the partial preservation of the previously formed features with the development of eluviation features under colder and wetter climatic conditions. This intrazonal soil is genetically close to gray forest and soddy-podzolic soils with residual second humus horizons that are widespread on the Vyatka-Kama interfluve. The evolution of the latter soils in the second part of the Holocene has been driven by eluviation processes that gradually eliminate the features of the second humus horizon from the soil profiles.     

Properties of soils in Southern Sikhote-Alin using the example of the Ussuri Reserve

The physical and physicochemical parameters of soils in the Ussuri Reserve presenting the typical soils of the Southern Sikhote-Alin were determined for the first time with consideration for the composition and structure of the soil cover. The soils in the surface horizons had loamy and clay loamy texture. It could vary depending on the overlain soil processes. All the soils were characterized by the minimum base saturation and an increase in the actual acidity down the profile. The organic matter was characterized by an abrupt decrease down the profile and the high mobility of the humus substances. The fractional-group humus composition was analyzed, and the humus status of the soils was characterized. The burozems were regarded as background soils, while a humus-illuvial podburs were referred to the rare ones. Recommendations were developed for the organization of soil monitoring with key test plots in different ecological conditions as examples.     

Diagnostics of gleyzation upon a low content of iron oxides (Using the example of tundra soils in the Kolyma Lowland)

The matrix of iron (hydr)oxides exerts a decisive influence on the character of gleyzation. Upon a high content of iron (hydr)oxides, their reduction radically changes the horizon color from warm to cold hues, which is typical of soils on the Russian Plain. Upon the low content of iron (hydr)oxides, iron reduction takes place in phyllosilicates with minimal changes in the soil color. The cold hue of cryohydromorphic soils in the Kolyma Lowland is controlled by the color of the lithogenic matrix with a low content of iron (hydr)oxides. In this case, the soil color characteristics expressed in the Munsell notation or in the CIE-L*a*b* system are ineffective for diagnostic purposes. The colorimetric methods appear to be more efficient after the soil pretreatment with hydrogen peroxide, as the gleyed horizons turn green, while the nongleyed (and not overmoistened) horizons turn red. Physical methods (Mössbauer spectroscopy and magnetic susceptibility measurements) are more efficient for characterizing the properties of iron compounds in cryohydromorphic soils as compared with the methods of chemical extraction. Mössbauer spectroscopy proved to be highly efficient, as the iron oxidation index Fe³⁺/(Fe²⁺+Fe³⁺) decreases in the gleyed horizons. Chemical reagents (Tamm’s and Mehra-Jackson’s reagents) dissolve Fe-phyllosilicates and are not selective in soils with a low content of iron (hydr)oxides.     

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.     

Microstructure of Soils of Different Geneses and Its Transformation in Constructozems of Moscow

The transformation of microstructure of constructozems was studied in a four-year-long (2012–2016) field experiment with the use of rheological and electron microscopy methods. Field studies were performed in the area of Moscow State University on three variants of artificial human-made soils (constructozems) differing in the structure of their profiles: (1) the control variant with the upper part composed of a homogenized Ap horizon, (2) the layered constructozem composed of a sequence of layers (Ap–peat–sand–Ap), and (3) the constructozem consisting of a mixture of the above-mentioned horizons. Electron microscopy attested to an increase in differentiation of the pore space in the upper Ap horizons in variants 1 and 2: new pores and chambers of different sizes appeared. In the loose porous mass of the peat layer in variant 2, more compact cohesive microstructures were formed. Microaggregation was identified in the upper layer of variant 3. Changes in the spatial arrangement of the solid phase of the soils were reflected in their rheological properties. A gradual increase in stability of structural bonds in the Ap horizon (variant 1) was detected. In variant 2, the underlying peat layer affected the shape of rheological curves in the Ap horizon. In variant 3, changes in strength properties of the mixed soil mass resulted in the formation of rheological behavior of fluid bodies typical of the plowed humus horizons.