Soils of northern spurs of the Cherskii Ridge in the area of the northern pole of cold: Morphology, properties, and classification

Abstract

The soils in the area of the northern pole of cold located on the interfluve between the Yana and Adycha rivers within the spurs of Kisilyakh Ridge included in the mountain system of Cherskii Ridge have been studied for the first time. The profile-genetic approach has been applied to describe the soils and determine their classification position. It is found that the major soil types in this region are the soils of the postlithogenic trunk belonging to the orders of lithozems (Cryic Leptosols), gley soils (Gleyic Skeletic Cryosols), and Al–Fe-humus soils (Spodic Skeletic Cryosols). The ecological ranges of altitudinal zones— the taiga zone with various types of lithozems below 630–700 m a.s.l. and the tundra zone with combinations of gley and nongley cryogenic soils above these heights—have been established. The development of gley or nongley soils is specified by the local orogenic and lithological conditions and slope aspect, which, in turn, control the degree of drainage and the presence and character of permafrost. In the profile of mountainous gley soils (gleyzems) with shallow ice-rich permafrost, cryogenic processes and features typical of the analogues of these soils on plains—cryogenic cracking, cryoturbation, solifluction, thixotropy, oxiaquic features above permafrost, saturation of the soil profile with mobile humus, etc.—are typical.