Before you know what swamp soils are, it makes sense to recall what “soil” is in general. Many immediately presented the school class, the teacher of natural history and his words about the solid shell of the Earth - the lithosphere. Its top layer has a unique quality - fertility. This is the soil. The fertile layer was formed over millions of years.
Factors of soil formation
The geography of soils in Russia is as extensive as the country itself. Parent rocks, climate, vegetation, terrain - all these factors affect the formation of a fertile layer. In the Russian expanse, stretching from the southern mountains to the northern seas, these factors are very different. Accordingly, the land that gives people a harvest is not the same. On the territory there are many climatic zones with different amounts of precipitation, illumination, temperature, flora and fauna. In Russia, you can admire the white silence of snows and sand dunes, see taiga forests and birch groves, flowering meadows and marshyswamps.
There are anthropogenic landscapes - people are increasingly interfering with nature, changing the thickness and quality of the fertile layer (not always for the better). But only one centimeter of humus or humus (of which the "living mass" consists) takes 200-300 years to form! How carefully you need to treat the soil so that future generations are not left alone with deserts and swamps!
Soil diversity
There are zonal soils. Their formation is strictly subject to the law of the change of flora, fauna, etc. at different latitudes. For example, Arctic soils are common in the North. They are scarce. The formation of even a weak humus layer under permafrost conditions, where only mosses and lichens are present among plants, is impossible. In the subarctic zone - tundra soils. The latter are richer than the arctic, but scarce compared to the podzolic lands of the taiga and mixed forests. With a decrease in acidity, the introduction of mineral and organic additives, they allow you to grow many varieties of crops.
There are forest soils, chernozems (the most fertile), desert. All of them are the subject of study of such sciences as soil geography, etc. These knowledge systems also pay great attention to the study of non-zonal lands, which include bog soils. They can be found in any climate zone.
Formation of marsh soils
The geography of soils in Russia contains information that the layers we are discussing in swamps and swampy forests are formed during stagnant moisturerain (precipitation), surface water (lakes, rivers, etc.) or underground aquifers (ground sources). Simply put, marsh soils form under moisture-loving vegetation. The bogs are forest (pine, birch there are very different from their forest counterparts, they are small, “clumsy”), shrubby (heather, wild rosemary), moss and grassy.
The formation of marsh soils is facilitated by two processes. Firstly, this is peat formation, when plant residues accumulate on the surface, as they rot poorly. Secondly, gleying, when iron oxide turns into oxide during the biochemical destruction of minerals. This difficult natural work was called the "bog process".
The swamps are coming if…
More often swamp soils are formed during the hydrogenic succession of land. But sometimes river expanses also turn into a marshy place with stagnant water. For example, such a process has been taking place on the great Russian river Volga for several years now. Due to the cascade of hydroelectric power stations and reservoirs, it flows more slowly and stagnates. Urgent rescue measures are needed.
Thus, if for one reason or another the speed of rivers decreases, they pollute uncontrollably. The bottom springs that feed them are silted up. But despite the "cry of nature", people do not care about them. Therefore, there is a great risk of turning the blue arteries of Russia into stagnant swamps.
Characteristics of peat-bog soils
As mentioned above, peat is formed from a dense mass not actively enoughdecaying remains of marsh plants. Although there are places where the process does not occur at all. The top layer of the earth, covered with "remains" deposits, is peat-bog soils. Are they suitable for agriculture? It all depends on geographical features.
In high-moor peat soils, a thick layer of organic matter could theoretically enrich the top layer of the earth. But it does not decompose well. The active formation of humus is prevented by the high acidity of the medium, its weak bioactivity, which is also called "soil respiration". By the way, this is the name of the process of absorption of oxygen by the earth, the release of carbon dioxide, the production of organisms living in the upper bowels, and thermal energy. The soil profile of such swamps is primitive. It has two horizons: peat and peat-gley. Gley - an earthy profile, which is given a gray, blue or blue color by ferrous oxide. Such soils do not differ in living power. They are of little use for agricultural use.
Characteristics of bog-podzolic soils
Swamp-podzolic soils can form where swampy mixed forests with moss-herbaceous cover spread. Or where there are wet meadows formed during the cutting of areas covered with trees. How to distinguish bog-podzolic soils from podzolic ones? It's very simple.
Steady signs of gleying are observed in marsh podzols. Outwardly, they look like rusty-ocher and gray spots. There are also veinlets, primings penetrating all horizons of the profile. The development of marsh-podzolic lands is affected by two typessoil formation: marsh and podzolic. As a result, both the peat horizon and gleying, as well as the podzolic and illuvial layers are observed.
Characteristics of marsh-meadow soils
Marsh-meadow soils are formed where plains and terraces of rivers, covered with sedge and reeds, have depressions. At the same time, additional surface moisture is observed (flood for at least 30 days) and at the same time constant ground recharge at a depth of about 1.5 m.
The aeration zone is unstable. This is a layer of the earth's crust, located between the day surface and the groundwater surface. The soils in question are relevant not only for flat plains and terraces of rivers with close groundwater, but also for forest-steppes. Sedges, plants from the rush family, and reeds are readily localized on them. The genetic horizons of such lands are differentiated very clearly.
Marsh-meadow soils "live" in an unstable water regime. When the dry period begins, the swamp vegetation gives way to meadow vegetation, and vice versa. The following picture is observed: the profile of the earth is one, but life on it is different. In the dry period, if the waters are mineralized, salinization of the territories occurs. And if the liquid is low-mineralized, then dry swamp silts are formed.
Krasnodar Territory and its soils
The soils of the Krasnodar Territory are diverse. In the Primorsko-Akhtarsky, Slavyansky, Temryuksky regions, they are swampy and chestnut, rusty due to the many estuaries and bays. On them the inhabitants of the Kubangrow vineyards and rice. In the Labinsk and Uspensky districts, the soils are podzolic and chernozem. These lands are very fertile. They are suitable for rich crops of vegetables, sunflowers.
On the Black Sea coast, the soils of the Krasnodar Territory are mountain-forest. Magnificent orchards and vineyards grow here. Chernozems are everywhere on the Azov-Kurgan Plain. No wonder the Kuban is called the breadbasket of Russia. Its soils are so rich in humus that the locals often joke: "Even a stick stuck in the ground grows here."
During the Second World War, the Nazis loaded black soil into railway cars and exported it to Germany, realizing what a natural value it was. It is good that not all fertile strata were destroyed by the cruel treatment of people. But even in the presence of large reserves of gifted lands, a person must carry out agricultural work carefully. Whether it is soils of versatile use or swamps unsuitable for cultivation, one must remember that rash interference in the life of natural complexes is dangerous for all living things.
