Assessment of the relationships between the distribution of soil horizons and the climatic parameters

The influence of 15 parameters of atmospheric and soil climates on the distribution of 12 genetic soil horizons (humus, eluvial, illuvial, and metamorphic) in the soils of Russian plains was studied. Quantitative characteristics of the relationships between these climatic parameters and the distribution of soil horizons were estimated by the rank correlation method. The initial dataset was prepared with the use of digitized maps in the MapInfo program. The results of our study made it possible to estimate the climatic parameters with respect to their impact on the formation of soil horizons. The difference between precipitation and potential evaporation, evaporation, and bulk atmospheric moistening of the soils proved to be the most significant climatic parameters affecting the distribution of soil horizons. These characteristics reflect the redistribution of moisture under the influence of temperature factors. The weakest correlation with the distribution of soil horizons was found for the index characterizing the depth of penetration of temperatures >10°C into the soils.