Similar and different features of soils in boreal deserts of Eastern and Western Central Asia
New aspects in the comparison of macro- and micromorphological, chemical and physicochemical properties of soils studied in the eastern and western deserts of Central Asia, the Gobi and Turan deserts, respectively, are presented in the article. Common and specific properties of these deserts were re...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | Russian |
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V.V. Dokuchaev Soil Science Institute
2015-11-01
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| Series: | Бюллетень Почвенного института им. В.В. Докучаева |
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| Online Access: | https://bulletin.esoil.ru/jour/article/view/398 |
| Summary: | New aspects in the comparison of macro- and micromorphological, chemical and physicochemical properties of soils studied in the eastern and western deserts of Central Asia, the Gobi and Turan deserts, respectively, are presented in the article. Common and specific properties of these deserts were revealed, and they were compared with the statements in the paper written by I.P. Gerasimov in 1954 entitled ―Similarity and difference in the nature of deserts‖. Among common features, the preservation of the traits of former elevated moistening should be mentioned, which seems to be mitigated or deleted by current active aeolian processes. I.P. Gerasimov explained this paradox by the existence of the crusty horizon on the surface of desert soils protecting them from destruction. The fabric of the crusty horizon in different deserts he attributed to their particular nature, primarily to climate. In the end of the 20th and beginning of the XXI centuries, the application of electron microscopy, tomography, micromorphology and microbiology in pedological research permitted to evaluate the origin and fabric of crusty subhorizon in desert soils and underlying platy one at a microlevel. The analysis of new data concerning the properties of desert soils in Central Asia basically confirmed the ideas of I.P. Gerasimov. It became possible to elucidate the natural phenomena affecting the properties of desert soils in Gobi and Turan deserts, as well as to relate the formation of the vesicular desert crust to various microbiological, physical and physicochemical processes. The micromorphological signs of a solonetzic, or cryptosolonetzic process responsible for fine particles mobilization in the surface horizons of boreal desert soils were revealed. |
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| ISSN: | 0136-1694 2312-4202 |