Soil cover of the north of Central Siberia as displayed on the soil map of the Russian Federation (1988) and on the state soil map

A brief history of the development of notions about the soil cover of the north of Central Siberia and their cartographic representation is outlined. The role of the Soil Map of the Russian Federation (SMRF) (1988) as the document synthesizing knowledge about Russian soils accumulated by the 1980s is shown. It is stressed that the work of I.P. Gerasimov about the genetic specificity of Siberian soils was of fundamental significance as a clearly stated call for discovering new regularities of the genesis and geography of soils in relation to the broadening factual base of soil studies. For the territory of Central Siberia, soil cover patterns displayed on the SMRF require certain corrections. Such corrections have been reflected on the corresponding sheets of the State Soil Map of Russia (SSMR). The most significant of them concern the representation of cryohydromorphic nongley soils (cryozems) as modal soils of the considered region. On the SMRF, these soils were represented by a single type of taiga high-humus nongley soils. On the SSMR, two different types of cryozems (thixotropic and homogeneous cryozems) are distinguished, and their further subdivision with respect to the character of organic horizons, manifestation of gleyic features, possible differentiation of surface horizons, and the presence of residual carbonates is suggested. A different picture of the soil cover is shown for the territories composed of hard calcareous rocks. The area of metamorphic pale soils developing from the carbonate-free substrates has been extended. The major regularities of the soil cover patterns as displayed on the SSMR are illustrated by a schematic small-scale map. Information about ecological niches of the soils displayed on the SSMR and SMRF is presented in a tabulated form.