SOILS OF SOUTHERN CISBAIKALIA:DIVERSITY AND REGULARITIES OF SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION
A.A. Kozlova1, I.A. Belozertseva1,2, D.N. Lopatina2
1Irkutsk State University, 664003, Irkutsk, ul. Karla Marksa, 1, Russia
2V.B. Sochava Institute of Geography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, 664033, Irkutsk, ul. Ulan-Batorskaya, 1, Russia
Keywords: macro-, meso- and micro-levels of soil cover, paleocryogenic Late Pleistocene microrelief, cryogenic wedge-shaped structures, post-lithogenic and synlithogenic type of soil formation, denudation and sedimentation model of pedogenesis
Abstract
Soil studies on the territory of the Southern Cisbaikalia have shown that climate and topography have a noticeable effect on the diversity and spatial distribution of soil cover at the macro- and meso-level. A complex geological structure, the uneven age and variety of bedrocks, and the composition and degree of weathering of the parent rocks determined the uniqueness of the soils of the study area. For example, the development of residual-carbonate burozems is confined to the places of outcrops of Cambrian high-carbonate rocks. The organization of the soil cover at the micro-level is due to the paleocryogenic Late Pleistocene microrelief. Its hilly-depressive forms contributed to the differentiation of soil formation processes, which led to the complication of soil cover. Contrasting soil microcombinations are represented by complexes of automorphic, autonomous soils on polygons-hillocks and semi-hydromorphic, heteronomous in cryogenic wedge-shaped structures (depressions). On the hillock polygons, the soil profile is formed in the undisturbed soil mass, which corresponds to the post-lithogenic type of soil formation, and the periodic removal of soil material indicates a denudation model of pedogenesis. In depressions, soil formation occurs in redeposited soil material; the presence of one or several buried humus horizons corresponds to the synlithogenic type of soil formation and the accumulative-sedimentary (sedimentation) model of pedogenesis. The result of this research was the compilation of a landscape and soil map of Southern Cisbaikalia using the Quantum-GIS program by interpolating the points of soil sampling using landscape indication methods.
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