Cryogenic Soils on the Khanovey Educational Field Training Site, Vorkuta District, Komi Republic

Abstract

The subject of the study are soils on the territory of the Khanovey educational field training site in the Vorkuta district of Komi Republic. Morphological descriptions of soil profiles and diagnostics and classification of soils in the modern Russian system were carried out. Laboratory analysis was carried out to determine soil properties: moisture content, acidity and total content of soluble salines. The study area is located in the southeastern part of the Bolshezemelskaya tundra, it is represented by inclined surface of the right side of the valley of the Vorkuta River valley, composed of alluvial and ancient alluvial sands, overlain by loamy and sandy-loam deposits. Holocene peatlands up to 4–5 m thick are the youngest deposits within the studied territory. Small and large dwarf birch tundras with shrub-green moss and grass-shrub-sphagnum cover are common here. The studied soils belong to the division of organogenic, postlitogenic and synlitogenic soil formation. The first includes oligotrophic peaty soils within a thick peatland (Histosols), the second includes cryogenic and cryometamorphic soils (Cryosols), as well as peaty gleyzems (Histic Cryosols). The third includes alluvial humic soils (Fluvisols). The moisture content of soils varies widely from 2 to 900 %. Soils acidity is from acidic to neutral (pH 4.5 to 7.5). The content of soluble salts in soils varies from about 0 to 300 mg/l.