Analysis of information about the alkaline soil areas in Russia at the end of the XX and beginning of the XXI centuries

The definitions of “alkaline” and “alkaline-solonetzic soils” are given in the paper. The data on the alkaline soils distribution in the national Soil Fund and in Russian agricultural areas are represented based on the summary of materials from late XX and early XXI centuries. It is shown that the data provided in the State reports of 2016 and 2019, in the monograph “Global climate and soil cover of Russia” (2019) and in other reviewed sources do not always coincide and do not allow us to get a clear idea about the alkaline soils distribution throughout the territory of the country and within the agricultural lands. However, the most important issue is to become acquainted and evaluate methodological approaches, currently used to obtain information about the distribution and changes of alkaline and alkaline-solonetzic soils on the territory of certain regions of the country and Russia as a whole. The materials presented in the paper indicate that the data on the areas of alkaline and alkaline-solonetzic soils need to be clarified on the basis of state-of-the-art remote sensing methods and ground-based soil mapping. At the same time, it is necessary to develop and approve unified methodological approaches for consideration of alkaline and alkaline-solonetzic soils on the territory of the Russian Federation. It is noted that the areas of irrigated lands need to be independently monitored and separated from the total Soil Fund of agricultural land, as well as a separate calculation of fallow, alkaline and solonetzic soils on irrigated land.