Modern and relict features in clayey cryogenic coils: Morphological and micromorphological identification Rasgos modernos y actuales en suelos criogénicos arcillosos: identificación morfológica y micromorfológica Características modernas e ancestrais de solos criogénicos argilosos: identificação morfológica e micromorfológica

• Published in: Spanish Journal of Soil Science
• Main Authors: Marina Lebedeva, Irina Kovda
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2013
• Subjects: Soil forming processes; evolution; permafrost; cryogenesis; shrinking and swelling; TransBaikal; Procesos de edafogénesis; evolución; criogénesis; contracción y expansión; Processos de pedogénese; evolução; criogénese; contracção y expansão; Agriculture; S; Solos’; wedge*
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3232/SJSS.2013.V3.N3.01; https://doaj.org/article/bcf57cbc38ac4f6685e2325cae2674f0

The research was performed in the south-eastern part of Russia. Soils were formed on clayey parent materials under an extreme continental climate favorable for the deep freezing and maintenance of permafrost. Based on morphological, micromorphological, physical and chemical attributes, the soils represent a soil complex that includes Vertic Luvic Phaeozems (Clayic and Turbic) and Luvic Phaeozems (Clayic and Turbic). Decomposition, aggregation, eluviation, illuviation, pedoturbation, mineralization and hardening result from accumulation and transformation of organic matter, freeze-thaw, shrink-swell, and translocation processes, and cryoturbation. The soil complex is interpreted as polygenetic. Interpretations were made in order to differentiate modern soil processes from relict ones. The most ancient features correspond to the cold Pleistocene glacial period and include cryogenic wedges, permafrost involutions, disrupted soil horizons, cryogenic sorting of coarse material, and accumulation of the organic matter above the permafrost. A subsequent stage of pedogenesis under a warmer and wetter environment is reflected by black humus crack infillings, black humus aggregates deep in the subsoil, vertical translocation of mobile organic matter, and the formation of clay coatings. Finally, the current climate is a warmer but more arid pedoenvironment. It is recorded in the soil complex by brownish fulvic humus and the formation of vertic features. Even in this last relatively warm climatic stage, vertic features formed by shrinking and swelling processes co-exist with annual deep freezing of the soils and subsoil permafrost at a depth of about ~300 cm. Este estudio se llevó a cabo en el sureste de Rusia. Los suelos están formados sobre materiales arcillosos bajo un clima continental extremo que favorece la congelación de los niveles profundos y mantiene el permafrost. De acuerdo con sus características morfológicas, micromorfológicas, físicas y químicas, los suelos representan un complejo edáfico que incluye Phaeozems ...