Micromorphological evaluation of features of dry-land farming soils whithin kastanozems (chestnut) - solonetz soil complex in the Stavropol region

The polygenetic nature and polymorphism of the soils of kastanozems-solonetz complexes determine the difficulty of their field diagnostics and further genetic interpretations. In the current study, micromorphological features are used as additional diagnostic characteristics, specifying genetic interpretations for the soils of the kastanozems (chestnut)-solonetz complex (chestnut solonetz, chestnut solonetzic soil, chestnut soil, chestnut-like meadow soil) used in agriculture (dryland farming) within the Apanasenkovsky District of Stavropol region. An attempt has been made to correlate the results of micromorphological research, which was performed to evaluate the role of micromorphologycal investigation in clarification of macromorphological description, with data obtained through physical and chemical analyses. First, this study reveals that the Kastanozem (Chestnut) soil have the best correlation between macromorphological description and data of micromorphological investigation. In meadow-chestnut, solonetzic-type and solonetz soils micromorphological investigation helps to realize a set of pedofeatures such as complex multilayered coatings with layers of different genesis, Red-Ox features, etc. Finally, micromorphological investigation allows better interpretation and understanding of physico-chemical data.