Soil Taxonomy or World Reference Base: how to classify Antarctic soils?

• Main Authors: Tymur Bedernichek, Tetyana Partyka, Oleg Orlov, Natalia Zaimenko
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: Zenodo 2019
• Subjects: antarctic soil; ornithogenic soils; Maritime Antarctica; Antarc*; Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Antarctica; Mac Robertson Land; Mac. Robertson Land; Queen Maud Land
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3045019

Only 0.35% of Antarctica is ice-free. More than half of this territory – about 53% is located in the Transantarctic Mountains and, in particular, the Pensacola Mountains. About 20% – in the Antarctic Peninsula and the surrounding islands, 11%, and 7% can be found in the Mac-Robertson Land and by Queen Maud Land respectively. Temperature regimes, precipitation, plant coverage are very different in these regions. Nowadays, more than 30 countries are conducting research in Antarctica, but according to JG Bockheim (2015), only about 2,400 soil profiles were diagnosed and classified so far. 75% of them are in the Transantarctic Mountains and 16% in the Antarctic Peninsula. Moreover, researchers in Antarctica use various soil classifications, hence it is difficult and sometimes impossible to compare and summarize the results of different studies