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- Title
Sphagnum Litter as the Most Important Genetic Horizon in the Profile of Peat Soils of Boreal Bogs.
- Authors
Avetov, N. A.; Shishkonakova, E. A.
- Abstract
Peat soils of the taiga zone of Western Siberia are historically relatively poorly studied. In the diagnostics of peat soils, the question of the belonging of the sphagnum litter horizon to the soil profile, as well as the identification of its lower boundary, remains unresolved. In the WRB system, as well as in the Russian soil classification system, sphagnum litter is considered as a vegetation cover, while in the Soviet classification it is considered an integral part of the soil profile. The latter point of view is shared by the majority of Russian researchers. Using the materials obtained in the study of peat soils in the basin of the Kazym River (right tributary of the Ob River, northern taiga subzone, Western Siberia), a comparative characteristic of the sphagnum litter horizon (0–20 cm) and the underlying peat horizon (20–50 cm) was carried out with respect to three parameters: the botanical composition of peat, the degree of peat decomposition, and the color of peat soil. All soils are differentiated into the litter horizon and the peat horizon by at least one parameter (5% of the profiles) but, in 71% of cases, by all the three parameters at once. The degree of profile differentiation into the moss litter and proper peat horizons tends to increase in the soil sequence from oligotrophic pine–shrub–sphagnum bogs to oligotrophic complex ridge–hollow bogs and to mesotrophic bogs. In the overwhelming majority of oligotrophic peat soils, the transition from the litter horizon to the peat horizon is gradual, which does not allow a reproducible assessment of the position of the boundary of litter layer in the soil profile. It is proposed to set a fixed lower boundary of sphagnum litter as a depth of 20 cm from the bog surface and to consider sphagnum litter as the surface horizon of peat soils.
- Subjects
PEAT soils; SOIL profiles; BOGS; SOIL horizons; PEAT mosses; SOIL classification
- Publication
Eurasian Soil Science, 2023, Vol 56, Issue 11, p1579
- ISSN
1064-2293
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1134/S1064229323601786