Contribution of the specialists of Dokuchaev soil science institute to the study of soils in Mongolia (to the 50th anniversary of the Russian-Mongolian integrated biological expedition of the RAS and ASM)

The article presents a brief analysis of the works by specialists of Dokuchaev Soil Science Institute, devoted to the study of soils of Mongolia in the 20th - early 21st century. To date, the soil cover and soils of Mongolia have been studied quite well. L. I. Prasolov begun soil research in the territory of Mongolia, and established the similarity of the landscapes of Transbaikal and Northern Mongolia; he first noted the significant differences in the properties of chestnut soils in the south of European Russia and Mongolia. B. B. Polynov described the chestnut and brown soils of Mongolia, and continued the classification list of soils of Mongolia compiled by L. I. Prasolov; he also started the geochemical studies in Mongolia. N. D. Bespalov collected a large amount of factual material on soils not previously described by soil scientists. The works by I. P. Gerasimov and E. M. Lavrenko have great theoretical significance and explain the reasons for the uniqueness of the soils of Mongolia. Special attention is paid to the work of the Russian-Mongolian Integrated Biological Expedition in 1970-1975 under the supervision of P. D. Gunin. Its main result was the creation and publication of the MNR Soil Map M 1: 2500 000. In the 70s, the desert and oasis ecosystems salinity in the Gobi deserts were studied, as well as the problems associated with the natural and anthropogenic desertification of the territory of desert ecosystems. The result of many years of research was the book «Ecosystems of Natural Oases of the Desert Zone of Central Asia», published in 2018.