Genetic and substantive soil classifications and their applicability in geobotanical research

The first soil classifications dividing soils according to their individual properties and reflecting the resource value of soils were, in fact, substantive classifications. The appearance of soil science that studies soils as special natural bodies changing in space according to natural laws has led to the emergence of genetic soil classifications. The most detailed multilevel Classification of soils of the USSR (1977) is ecological genetic classification based on the relationship between soils and soil formation conditions, where the type of vegetation cover is the top hierarchy level. With the development of soil science, inconsistencies between the genetic classification and the growing volume of knowledge, difficulties in its formalization, and contradictions with the zonal approach have appeared. A paradigm of substantive classification has emerged based on modern measurable morphological and analytical indicators of soils. It is most fully implemented in the World reference base for soil resources (WRB); a compromise option is the substantive- genetic Soil Classification of Russia (2004). In these classifications, for the first time soils with strong human influence (Antrosols and Technosols) are included at a high classification level. The tasks of substantive classifications are the certainty of soil identification; however, discrete classification cells with tight boundaries do not correspond to the continual nature of soils. When using WRB 2014, geobotanical studies receive a certain “freedom” from soils, at the same time, the rigid framework of the parameters of soil properties makes it possible to more accurately identify soil-depended condition of the vegetation cover.

classifications, soils, WRB, qualifiers, Technosols, Anthrosols, WRB 2014 for geobotanical research, WRB 2014 для геоботанических исследований