Soil cover patterns on flat interfluves in the Kamennaya Steppe

Three-component soil combinations developed on flat interfluves in the Kamennaya Steppe consist of the low-contrasting areas of typical, leached, and zooturbated chernozems. Against the background of this natural soil cover pattern, the low-contrasting combinations of agrochernozems and postagrogenic chernozems are formed under the impact of different land uses. Both random and regular patterns of the spatial variability in the morphometric soil characteristics can be distinguished. The latter are manifested by regular changes in the thickness of soil horizons predetermined by the spatial differentiation of local factors (the burrowing activity of animals and the redistribution of water by the elements of microtopography) affecting the soil development. On the flat interfluves, the morphometric parameters of the soils display weak statistical correlation with the parameters of the relief for the entire soil combination. However, they are closely correlated with the relief in the thalweg zones of local hollows occupied by leached chernozems. The specificity of the soil cover pattern in the Kamennaya Steppe should be taken into account upon the organization of soil monitoring studies; a detailed soil mapping of key plots is necessary.