Morphological features of leptosols and leptic soils of the natural park “Scherbakovsky”

Soils formed on dense geological rocks and with a skeleton profile in the Volgograd region occupy about 3% of the total area of the region. Their study is unjustly ignored by researchers. The questions connected with the study of morphological and chemical properties of these soils are very topical, as they will allow to reveal the peculiarities of the genesis of skeletal soils of the dry steppe natural zone. In order to achieve the set tasks, 12 soil sections along the studied soil catena (1.5 km) were laid and described within the field practice of the students of the 2nd year of the Department of Ecology and Nature Management of Volgograd State University, as a result of which the morphological and chemical features of the soils of the studied territory were established. The qualifiers Leptic, Skeletic, Hyperskeletic, Lithic and Nudilithic, indicating the development of soils on dense geological rocks, as well as the skeletal nature of the profile, were noted in 5 profiles. Soil-forming rocks for them are proluvial-deluvial sediments, as well as large fragments of opoka. The upper boundaryof horizons R (dense rocks) varies from 20 to 60 cm depending on the microrelief. As a result of the description of soil profiles, the morphological features of the studied soils have been established. In most sections, the content of fine grains is less than 20% (qualifier Hyperskeletic), and inclusions ofsmall (up to 1 cm) and large (over 10 cm) rock fragments (feature sk, qualifier Skeletic) were recorded. The conducted researches in the natural park “Scherbakovsky” are important from the point of view of soil condition monitoring, and also will allow to reveal features of genesis of underdeveloped, skeletal soils of the dry-steppe natural zone.