The necessity of a comprehensive description of greenhouse gas fluxes on different types of soils, the methodology for creating “carbon polygons” and “carbon farms” with the use of modern methods for assessing carbon fluxes in ecosystems, taking into account the specifics of the natural conditions of Russia and competitive advantages, are substantiated. Directions for developing national methods for calculating carbon fluxes are given, which should be subjected to verification by the interested parties of the Paris Agreement adopted by the Russian Federation. Such issues are considered as the role and potential of the Russian soil cover in the carbon balance of the planet, factors of reducing carbon stocks from the upper 1 meter depth layer of the soil, competitive edge in the EU and the Western world in the questions of natural and climatic changes, the use of remote sensing of the Earth from space in order to obtain regular, complete and reliable estimates of the absorption of greenhouse gases. 

The paper provides initial materials characterizing the complicated history of formation, natural soils and lithological-geomorphological conditions of the Jizzakh steppe before the beginning of reclamation development. It is shown that on the basis of soil-lithological and geomorphological zoning, the Jizzakh steppe is divided into a number of natural regions belonging to different levels (altitude levels) of the piedmont plain. In total, 22 districts have been identified within the Jizzakh steppe, including the foothill margins. On the piedmont plain itself, the regions are combined into two high-altitude levels: the upper step and the lower step or blanket zone. These two levels differ sharply in terms of drainage conditions and soil salinity. The upper level, covering the upper and middle parts of the alluvial fan, the high interconal Zaamin-Sanzar plain and the Lomakino plateau, is characterized by a weak manifestation of salinity due to relatively good drainage, except for the sloping depressions of the Lomakino plateau. In contrast to the upper level, the lower level, located in the blanket zone of the piedmont plain, is characterized by active natural salinization because of the poor drainage. The saline sediments of the Zaamin cone delta are characterized by the greatest thickness. To a lesser extent, the rocks of the Sanzar cone delta, which are drained by deep gullies, are salinized. The Khavast sloping plain is characterized by a strongly saline upper two-meter layer, with salt and gypsum content decreasing with depth. Thus, it is shown that high salinity and gypsum bearing rocks, as well as high groundwater salinity of the cone delta zone are the source of modern salt accumulation in soils of foothill Golodnostepskaya plain, as well as in soils of the cone delta zone of Djizak steppe.

This work was carried out to study the content and distribution of available for plants phosphorus in different types of floodplain soils along five catenas located in the upper and the middle Amur. It was found that the available for plants phosphorus forms in the soils of floodplains are influenced by the following factors: the structure of the river system, the type of floodplain, the type of vegetation cover, and soil-forming processes. During the long-term transportation of alluvium along the river bed, its hydrogenic weathering occurs with the release of phosphorus into river waters. In the absence of tributaries serving as additional sources of alluvium, the phosphorus content decreases downstream. More intense floodplain and alluvial processes in small floodplains provide renewal of the soil profile and replenishment of phosphorus reserves. In the soils under the birch forest, there is a significant accumulation of phosphorus, in comparison with the soils under meadow vegetation. The development of gley processes leads to active mobilization of phosphorus, but the long-term exposure leads to the depletion of its total reserves. The illimerization processes, initiated and developing when the floodplain hydrological regime of alluvial soils is changed to another one, promote the migration of iron oxides and phosphorus, adsorbed by the former, beyond the soil profile. To summarize, the average content of available for plants phosphorus, depending on the type of soil, decreases downstream from 300–100 mg/kg in the upper Amur to 170–20 mg/kg in the middle Amur. Available for plants of phosphorus are best provided in primitive alluvial layered soils, while in residual floodplain brunezems the lowest content is recorded.

The phosphate regime of sod-podzolic soil (heavy loam) of Cis-Urals under natural phytocenoses (mixed forest, cereal-grass meadow) and agrophytocenoses was studied. The influence of agricultural use of arable land on phosphate regime was evaluated in the long-term stationary experiment (year of establishment – 1978) and the eastern galega (Galega orientalis L.) (year of sowing – 1988). The total content of phosphorus in soil, quantity of its organic, mineral and plant available forms were studied, the fractional composition of mineral phosphates was considered (using Ginzburg-Lebedeva method). The total content of phosphorus in the upper soil layer in all studied objects varied from 1 030 to 1 350 mg/kg. Mineral phosphorus forms prevailed over organic ones in the soil. It was found that the fractional composition of mineral phosphates was 40–62% represented by iron phosphates and 31–48% by calcium phosphates, which is due to the characteristic features of the soil-forming rock – yellow-brown non-carbonate silt drape. Aluminum phosphates amounted to 8–12%. Long-term cultivation of crops during five cycles of the eight-field crop rotation led to a significant decrease in the content of organic phosphorus in the soil. The lower content of iron phosphates (1.6–1.8 times) and the higher content (1.3–2.0 times) of calcium phosphates, available for plants, were observed in the soil of long-term experiment when compared with natural phytocenoses. The content of plant available phosphorus in soil gradually decreased from 239 to 164 mg/kg from the moment of experiment establishment to the fifth rotation. Prolonged fertilizer application (N₆₀P₆₀K₆₀) resulted in the significant increase in mineral and plant available phosphorus forms content in the soil. The residual phosphorus of fertilizers was noted in the Fe-P, Ca-PI and Ca-PII fractions. Under the eastern galega the quantitative and qualitative indicators of the phosphate regime of the soil did not differ significantly from their natural analogues.

The paper presents the results of interpretation of sealed soils and ground for the territory of Volgograd and its various functional zones. Determination of the sealed portion was performed by means of automated method using ENVI 4.7 software by means of QuickBird space image classification using the “maximum likelihood” method. The study objects were the territories of all districts of Volgograd, as well as residential and recreational functional zones. It was found that the sealed surfaces occupy about 169.4 km² (20.5% of the total area of the city). However, the city districts and functional zones differ significantly in proportion of sealed areas. The most sealed surfaces were those of Tractorozavodsky (24.2%), Voroshilovsky (33.0%), Dzerzhinsky (37.4%), Centralny (45.2%), Krasnooktyabrsky (39.4%) and Krasnoarmeisky (26.6%) districts of Volgograd. Soil cover of the Sovetsky (13.5%) and Kirovsky (12.9%) districts is least sealed. Sealing of functional zones also varies widely. Thus, the highest values of sealing (up to 63%) characterize the multi-, low- and medium-rise constructions zones. A wide range of values (from 26 to 51%) corresponds to the areas of individual residential development, as well as collective gardens and dachas (from 9.6 to 39.5%). In the recreational zone average sealing is at 27.6% level. Thus, the identified share of sealed surfaces on the territory of Volgograd and its functional zones will allow solving effectively the problems of territorial planning in the further implementation of works on gardening and landscaping of urban areas.

The overview of publications on soil cartography in “Pochvovedenie”/“Eurasian Soil Science” journal for the period 1899–2020 demonstrates a high diversity of themes and certain trends in the number and dynamics of papers. Their total number (365), calculated per 5-year-long intervals, was distributed rather evenly among these 121 years: approximately 10–15 papers in each interval, although three maximums are rather clear. The first one fell on the post-war interval and was followed by 1965–1970 and 2010–2015 maximums. Discussion of large-scale maps dominated the early publications, many of them tackled soil surveys and applied problems; in the mid-century papers, soil maps of various regions of the country were described since it was time of extensive terrain investigations; numerous were also papers concerning methodology of soil mapping. New approaches and technique were actively discussed in the papers at the turn of centuries, such as remote sensing or digital soil mapping. Along with map compilation issues, there are publications on applying information provided by soil maps for both traditional and novel purposes: schemes of zoning in the former case and development of prognostic maps or assessment of pedodiversity in the latter case. The majority of papers on zoning, concern soil-geographical (later soil-ecological) schemes, whereas the derived types of zoning, for example, ameliorative or erosional, are discussed in few papers. The performed overview may be regarded as summing up the results of traditional soil mapping development with emphasizing its most valuable achievements, as well as indicating the initial signs of new trends.

Dear readers, on page 111 in Volume 106 of Dokuchaev Soil Bulletin, 2021, (2021;(106):105-129) the caption to figure 1:

“Fig. 1. Scheme of the structure of floodplain deposits of the Amur River within the Middle-Amur Lowland, formed over a long period of time under the conditions of directed sediment accumulation. Deposits of facies: 1 – channel sand (sand with gravel); 2 – levee (fine sand); 3 – floodplain (sandy loam and loam); 4 – old riverbed (loam with silty interlayers); 5 – eolian riolkas (relatively high fine sand ridges) (Sokhina, 1973)”

should read:

“Fig. 1. Scheme of the structure of floodplain deposits of the Amur River within the Middle-Amur Lowland, formed over a long period of time under the conditions of directed sediment accumulation. Deposits of facies: 1 – channel sand (sand with gravel); 2 – levee (fine sand); 3 – floodplain (sandy loam and loam); 4 – old riverbed (loam with silty interlayers); 5 – eolian riolkas (relatively high fine sand ridges) (Makhinov, 2006)”.