Soil cover in the southern forest-steppe of the Central Russian Upland against the background of centennial climate fluctuations

Abstract

Special approaches and algorithms for studying the response of zonal soils and the soil cover of the forest-steppe zone to climate fluctuations were developed on the basis of data of repeated soil surveys. They made it possible to analyze the particular transformations of the soil cover as indicators of short-term climate fluctuations in the southern forest-steppe of the Central Russian Upland. Vector soil maps and related databases on soil polygons were developed using GIS technologies. Changes in the climatic conditions between two rounds of large-scale soil surveys in 1971 and 1991 reflecting the so-called Brückner cycles were identified. A characteristic feature of climate change during that period was the rise in the mean annual air temperature by 0.2°C and an increase in the mean annual precipitation by 83 mm. In response to this change, the area of leached chernozems (Luvic Chernozems) on the interfluves somewhat increased, whereas the area of typical chernozems (Haplic Chernozems) decreased.