Mountainous meadow-steppe soils in high mountains of the Eastern Caucasus region

The results of comprehensive investigations into the soil-forming conditions, morphology, substantive composition, physicochemical properties, bulk elemental composition, and mineralogy of mountainous meadow-steppe soils of the Eastern Caucasus region are discussed. The analysis of the obtained and published data has shown that the formation of these soils takes place in a relatively arid high-mountain environment from the coarse-textured eluvium of noncalcareous rocks. Two major pedogenetic processes with the participation of soil biota—humus accumulation and argillization—are responsible for their origin. Suggestions for improving the classification of mountainous meadow-steppe soils are given.