Soil Classification in Belarus: History and Current Problems ISSN 2080-7686

Bulletin of Geography. Physical Geography Series, No. 14 (2018): 37–47 http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/bgeo-2018-0003

Soil classification in Belarus: history and current problems ISSN 2080-7686

Viktar Tsyrybka, Hanna Ustsinava Republican Scientific Subsidiary Unitary Enterprise, Republic of Belarus * Correspondence: Republican Scientific Subsidiary Unitary Enterprise, Institute For Soil Science And Agrochemistry. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. The article contains a brief history of the development of the soil classification scheme of the Republic of Belarus. It comprises the description of the most widely-used (acknowledged) genetic classification of soils, characteristics of basic taxonomic units (type, subtype, sort, kind,- andvar Key words: iation), and characteristics of the 13 main types of Belarusian soils. The map of the soil cover of taxonomic level, Belarus and the morphological and genetic characteristics of typical and unique soil varieties are pre- soil type, sented. The main problems of the national soil classification and its correlation with the internation- genetic approach, al WRB system are shown. WRB correlation

Introduction works that require a scientifically grounded approach to the use of the republic’s land resources. A more in-depth study of the republic’s soils, accom- Classification of soils is an indispensable tool for panied by the accumulation of data on the structure fundamental and applied research. Soil mapping, of the profiles, the statistical and dynamic composi- comparative characteristics of structure, texture and tion and properties, and their role in the functioning properties, quantitative and qualitative assessment, of soil systems, shows that the existing classification suitability for crops, all types of ameliorative im- scheme needs to be improved. Increased interna- pacts on soils and protection from degradation are tional cooperation between soil scientists leads to impossible without a detailed classification of the the need for correlation of the national soil classi- entire soil diversity with a mandatory set of clear fication scheme and the World Reference Base for diagnostic features for each soil classification. Soil Resources (WRB) (IUSS Working Group 2015). In the Republic of Belarus a genetic soil classifi- In many countries of Сentral and Eastern Eu- cation developed in 1980 is used, with some updates rope, correlations of the national soil classifica- (Smeyan 2003). State soil services, the Ministry of tion with WRB was made. In Poland (Kabała et al. Forestry, universities and technical schools use it 2016), Latvia (Karklins 2002), Romania (Secu et al. as a working and scientific instrument of soil-car- 2008), Hungary (Lang et al. 2013), Russian Feder- tographic, scientific-methodological and other ation (Krasilnikov 2002) articles have been pub-

Bulletin of Geography. Physical Geography Series 2018. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- -NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2018 Nicolaus Copernicus University. All rights reserved. © 2018 De Gruyter Open (on-line). Soil classification in Belarus: history and current problems V. Tsyrybka, H. Ustsinava lished devoted to this problem. This indicates the formed as the result of human activity on different relevance of this soil classification. taxonomic levels. In this scheme, cultivated peat- bog soils were singled out on the type level and cultivated sod-podzolic on the lower level. The range The history of Belarusian soil classification of soils on the type level also includes sod-carbonate waterlogged and ancient alluvial soils, but the inter- im peat-bog soils (Smeyan and Solovey 1973) were Soil science as an academic discipline started devel- excluded from the classification. oping in Belarus only in the beginning of the 20th The classification published in 1974 was supple- century. mented with brown forest soils (Kulakovskaya et al. The problem of soil classification has always 1974). been one of the highest priority and the same time All the subsequent in-depth studies of Belaru- most widely discussed topics in soil sciences. The sian soils significantly clarified and supplemented first Belarusian works attempting soil classification the previous classifications. In 1980, on the basis of include publications in the 1920s and 30s, which those studies the new soil classification framework was when soil researches began on the territory of was developed (Smeyan 1980). It reflected natural the Republic of Belarus (Afanasyev 1997). Howev- and anthropogenic aspects of soil forming process- er, the first comparatively full scheme of Belarusian es and still remains relevant, taking into considera- soil classification was published in 1952 in the mon- tion the changes and additions made on the basis of ograph “Soils of the BSSR”, prepared by a group of studying anthropogenically-transformed soils in the authors under the editorship of I.S. Lupinovich and subsequent years. Based on the classification the no- P.P. Rogovoy (1952). Six types of soils were iden- menclature of soils of Belarus including 13 basic soil tified: sod, sod-podzolic, including waterlogged, types (see the Table 1) was created (Smeyan 2003). sod-bog, peaty-bog, and alluvial-meadow soils. Later, in 2006, a new classification of soils of Be- Sod-podzolic waterlogged include soils formed un- larus was developed. It encompasses all the varieties der the influence of podzolic, sod, and bog soil for- regardless of the degree of anthropogenic transformation processes. mation, and specifies the new taxonomic units, i.e. Classification schemes of that period suggest that a branch, a class, a subclass (Smeyan and Tsytron the most common soils on the territory of the Bela- 2006). Branches are identified according to the de- rus were the podzolic and sod-podzolic ones (var- gree of anthropogenic influence, classes according ying by degree of podsolisation, humidity, type of to type of hydromorphism, and subclasses accord- structure of parent materials and soil texture), and ing to soil formation process. In this classification also podzolic waterlogged, peat bog, humus-car- there are 52 types of soils: 18 natural ones (soils bonate and alluvial soils (Kulakovskaya et al. 1974). of natural lands), 17 natural-anthropogenic (mead- The Belarusian soil classification developed by ow lands) and 17 anthropogenic-transformed (ar- A.G. Medvedev, N.P. Bulgakov and Y.I Gavrilenko able and technogenically-degraded lands). Despite published in 1960 already possessed the full struc- the positive assessment of this classification by Rus- ture of hierarchical levels lower than a type (type, sian scientists (Dobrovolsky and Zaidelman 2008), subtype, sort, kind and variation). According to it was not accepted by most scientists and special- this classification worked out based on the mate- ists in Belarus. rial of the first round of large-scale soil research- In 2016, a new “natural” classification of soils es, the following seven soil types were identified on of Belarus was proposed (Romanova and Berkov the territory of Belarus: sod-carbonate, sod-podzol- 2016). It is an index and digital classification which ic, sod-podzolic waterlogged, sod waterlogged, peat singles out eight taxonomic levels which describe bog, alluvial sod waterlogged and alluvial peat bog in detail all the soil properties: class of hydromor- (Medvedev et al. 1960). phism, type of soil forming process, degree of soil In “The guidelines for large-scale soil-geobotan- moistening, soil texture and lithology, content of ical and agrochemical researches” the classification physical clay, presence of peat, mineralogical struc- from 1960 was supplemented with the soils trans- ture of parent materials, groundwater chemistry, bo-

38 Citation: Bulletin of Geography. Physical Geography Series 2018, 14, http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/bgeo-2018-0003 V. Tsyrybka, H. Ustsinava Soil classification in Belarus: history and current problems

Table 1. Types and subtypes of soils in Belarusian soil classification (1980)

No Soil type Soil subtype

Typical 1 Sod-carbonate Leached Podzolised 2 Brown forest Residual carbonate 3 Podzolic Podzolic Sod-podzolic 4 Sod-podzolic Sod-podzolic eroded Sod-podzolic cultivated

5 Podzolic waterlogged Podzolic waterlogged Surface-gleyed Sod-podzolic Ground-gleyed 6 waterlogged Surface-gleyed drained Ground-gleyed drained Peaty-podzolic-gleyed 7 Bog-podzolic Peaty-podzolic gleyed drained Surface-gleyed Ground-gleyed 8 Sod waterlogged Surface-gleyed drained Ground-gleyed drained Peat gley Peat 9 Peat-bog (ground water) Peat-gley drained Peat drained Peat gley Peat-bog Peat 10 (water from atmospheric precipitations) Peat-gley drained Peat drained Undeveloped Podzolised 11 Alluvial sod and sod waterlogged Gleyed Gleyed drained Silt-humic-gleyed Silt-peat-gleyed Silt-peat 12 Alluvial boggy Silt-humus-gleyed drained Silt-peat-gleyed drained Silt-peat drained Recultivated Anthropogenically degraded 13 Anthropogenically transformed Anthropogenically disturbed Anthropogenically saline Secondary-waterlogged

Citation: Bulletin of Geography. Physical Geography Series 2018, 14, http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/bgeo-2018-0003 39 Soil classification in Belarus: history and current problems V. Tsyrybka, H. Ustsinava tanical structure of peat, presence of the processes Genetic soils classification: use and current of deflation and erosion, ameliorative state and de- problems gree of cultivation or degradation. An example classification of a typical Belaru- sian soil might be “Sod-podzolic, slightly gleyed, Due to the convenience of its usage, the most pop- middle-cultivated, non-drained loamy soil, devel- ular and widely used in the large-scale soil mapping oping on light loess-like loams” (Hypogleyic Lu- is the classification developed in 1980, with some visol). Its class is semi-hydromorphic (B12), type additions (Smeyan 2003). is sod-podzolic waterlogged, water regime is stag- The main principle of distinguishing soil type is nantly washed (23), subtype is slightly gleyed, water- the nature of the soil-forming process. Taxonomic logged for 20–40 days during the vegetation period units of a lower level are distinguished by the pres-

(33), sort is cohesive rocks (42), subsort is loess-like ence of an additional soil-forming process, genesis loams, mineralogical composition of medium sup- of parent materials, soil texture, etc. (see Table 2) ply with biophilic elements (52), kind is absence of The full name of a soil, according to this classi- erosion and deflation (61), variation is natural water fication, can be the following: sod ground-gleyed, regime, (71), variant is medium degree of cultivation thickness of A horizon is less than 20 cm, devel-

(83). The genetic code of this soil is В1223334252617183 oped from loam alluvium, changing at a depth of (Romanova and Berkov 2016). 0.5 m to alluvial sandy loam (Fluvic and Gleysol). The developed classification and the coding of During the second round of large-scale soil re- main characteristics enabled all the diversity of the search conducted in 1968–1986 cartographic ma- Belarusian soils to be presented in a fairly simply terials were obtained at a scale of 1:10,000 for scheme. However, nowadays this classification is not agricultural lands and 1:25,000 for forest lands, on used because almost all the all the classifications the basis of which soil maps of all administrative developed by Belarusian soil scientists have always districts of the republic were subsequently created been of an applied nature, i.e. the main principle for at a scale of 1:50,000, regions at 1:200,000 and the its development is the combination of convenience country at 1:600,000. The schematic map showing of use and the genetic approach in singling out the the soil cover of the Republic of Belarus is shown taxonomic units. While the genetic approach is re- in Figure 1. spected, the convenience of practical usage is quite Characterising the soil cover of Belarus, it difficult because it requires a large volume of climat- is worth noting that sod podzolic (27.2%) and ic data that are not available for the territory of the sod-podzolic waterlogged (41.1%) soils are pre- country. Also, a lot of factors cannot be determined dominant in the agricultural and forest lands of the in the field, which makes it difficult to use this clas- country. Significantly smaller areas are occupied by sification in soil mapping. Maybe with the next de- sod-waterlogged and sod-carbonate waterlogged velopment of soil science, digital classification will (8.8%), peat-bog (16.9%), alluvial (flooded) sod become relevant or will act as a basis for develop- waterlogged (2.9%) and anthropogenically-trans- ment of a new classification. formed (1.8%) soils. Sod-carbonate soils occupy less than 0.1% of the area. Sod-podzolic soils are most widely distributed in the Grodno, Mogilev and Minsk regions,

Table 2. Taxonomic units and the criteria for their determination

No Taxonomical unit Criteria 1 Type Leading soil formation process reflected in the structure of the soil profile 2 Subtype Occurrence of additional soil forming process superimposed on leading one. 3 Sort Genesis and structure of soil parent materials 4 Kind Intensity of soil forming process 5 Variation Texture of soil parent materials

40 Citation: Bulletin of Geography. Physical Geography Series 2018, 14, http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/bgeo-2018-0003 V. Tsyrybka, H. Ustsinava Soil classification in Belarus: history and current problems

Fig. 1. Soil map of the Republic of Belarus (Lapa and Chernysh 2017) sod-podzolic waterlogged in the Vitebsk and Mog- the country, and Figure 7 shows degraded drained ilev regions, and sod and sod-carbonate water- peat soil. logged in the Brest region. The maximum areas Despite the extensive use of this classification of peat soils are concentrated in the Brest, Gomel scheme, there are some problems. The classical defi- and Minsk regions. In recent years, the areas of an- nition of the term “soil type” is as follows: the group thropogenically transformed soils have significant- of soil develops in the similar type-conjugated bio- ly increased, which are mostly degraded peat. The logical, climatic and hydrological conditions and is largest areas are situated in the Brest, Gomel and characterised by a clear manifestation of the basic Minsk regions. Flooded (alluvial) sod-waterlogged soil-forming process, with a possible combination soils are mostly widespread in the Brest and Gomel with other processes (Klebanovich 2007). regions (Lapa and Chernysh 2017). Sod, podzolic, bog, burozemic, and anthropo- Morphological and genetic characteristics of typ- genic transformation soil-forming processes were ical soil varieties are presented below on Figures identified on the territory of Belarus. The discus- 2–5; Figure 6 shows one of the most fertile soils of sion of the separation of anthropogenic impact on soils and the allocation of cultural soil-forming pro-

Citation: Bulletin of Geography. Physical Geography Series 2018, 14, http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/bgeo-2018-0003 41 Soil classification in Belarus: history and current problems V. Tsyrybka, H. Ustsinava

Fig. 2. Sod-podzolic hypogleyed loamy soil, developed from limnoglacial loam on limnoglacial clay (WRB: Hypostagnic Retisol; Lapa and Cher- nysh 2017)

Fig. 3. Sod-podzolic sandy loamy soil, developed from morainic sandy loam on morainic loam (WRB: Luvisol; Lapa and Chernysh 2017)

42 Citation: Bulletin of Geography. Physical Geography Series 2018, 14, http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/bgeo-2018-0003 V. Tsyrybka, H. Ustsinava Soil classification in Belarus: history and current problems

Fig. 4. Sod-podzolic hypogleyed sandy soil, developed on fluvioglacial sand on morainic loam (WRB: Planosol; Lapa and Chernysh 2017)

Fig. 5. Peat lowland medium drained soil, developed from reed-sedge peat, underlain by sands (WRB: Murshic Sapric Histosol; Lapa and Cher- nysh 2017)

Citation: Bulletin of Geography. Physical Geography Series 2018, 14, http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/bgeo-2018-0003 43 Soil classification in Belarus: history and current problems V. Tsyrybka, H. Ustsinava

Fig. 6. Sod-carbonate leached soil, developed from old alluvial sediments (WRB: Gleyic Chernozem; Lapa and Chernysh 2017)

Fig. 7. Degraded mineral residual-peat sandy soil, underlain by fluvioglacial sand (WRB: Gleyic Umbrisol; Lapa and Chernysh 2017)

44 Citation: Bulletin of Geography. Physical Geography Series 2018, 14, http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/bgeo-2018-0003 V. Tsyrybka, H. Ustsinava Soil classification in Belarus: history and current problems cesses (significant improvement in the natural prop- of silt in situ without leaching it through the soil erties of agricultural soils and the appearance of the profile (Kulakovskaya et al. 1974). new type of soil: agrozems (Smeyan and Tsytron Anthropogenic transformation of soils is a com- 2006)) and degradation (degradation of soil prop- bination of processes that results in a significant erties) was largely disputed because of the classifi- change in the natural properties of soils. In the cation scheme of 2006. course of transformation, the productivity of soils A brief description of the soil-forming process- can be improved (cultivated soils of agricultural es is given below. lands), or catastrophically degraded (soils of quar- The podzolic process proceeds under conditions ries) (Kulakovskaya et al. 1974). of a washing or partially washing water regime un- When using this classification scheme there are der coniferous forests, mainly on non-carbonate problems. If one strictly abides by the principles of parent rocks. As a result of the forest vegetation, genetic isolation of soil types, then there are doubts plant residues of low thickness formed on the sur- about the logical separation of some of the existing face of the soil every year, which decomposed by a 13 soil types. fungal micro flora, forming a light-colored organic So, often when describing podzolic soils, the acid. This acid destroys the soil minerals and takes presence of low-activity A (humus) or AE (hu- the products of that destruction into the lower part mus-eluvial) horizons are indicated, which auto- of the soil profile or beyond it (Kulakovskaya et al. matically excludes the presence of a separate type 1974). of soil. In addition, in the literature there is no The sod process developed under the influence clear criteria for the separation of bog podzolic and of grass flora, which annually accumulates a signif- podzolic waterlogged soils. After all, the soil-form- icant amount of overground and underground bio- ing processes in them are overall the same. Even if mass. Under the influence of microorganisms, the the presence of a peat horizon is considered a nec- dead plant remains decomposed with the forma- essary criterion of the difference, and guided sole- tion of darkly coloured humic acids, which leads ly by the genetic approach, it turns out that these to enrichment of the upper soil horizon with hu- types of soils should contain be no humus horizon. mus. Accumulation of humus significantly weakens However, no such soil variety is described in the lit- the leaching process and enriches the upper horizon erature (Klebanovich 2007). with mineral elements. As a result of this process, In addition, correlating between the national soil a dark humus horizon with a lumpy or granular classification and the international WRB system is structure is formed (Kulakovskaya et al. 1974). highly problematic. On the territory of Belarus, the sod and podzol- The classification of soils in the internation- ic processes usually occur together, which leads to al WRB system is of particular interest in connec- the formation of sod-podzolic soils. tion with the growing international cooperation of The bog process occurs in conditions of excessive soil scientists and the increasing role of soil in the soil moistening, caused either by shallow groundwa- modern world. In the Atlas of European soils (Jones ter occurrence, or by the retention of atmospheric et al. 2005), only four taxonomic units have been precipitation by waterproof rocks (clay, loam). The identified on the territory of the Republic of Be- characteristic features of the marsh process are peat larus. There were: sharply dominant Albeluvisols formation and gleying. In depressions, the bog pro- (now replaced with Stagnosols, Planosols, and Re- cess is genetically associated with sod and podzolic tisols, which are equivalents of sod-podzolic and processes, which as a result leads to the formation sod-podzolic waterlogged), Histosols (peat-bog), of sod-podzolic waterlogged soils (Kulakovskaya et Fluvisols (alluvial) and Podzols (podzolic being al. 1974). part of sod-podzolic waterlogged and bog-podzol- Burozemic soil formation takes place under con- ic). This map is undoubtedly very schematic and ditions of the washing water regime under decidu- does not correspond to reality. ous forests, where the process of silt accumulation The main problem of the correlation between predominates. The process comprises a metamor- the Belarusian and international soil classifications phic transformation of minerals, the accumulation is the difference in the approaches to the allocation

Citation: Bulletin of Geography. Physical Geography Series 2018, 14, http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/bgeo-2018-0003 45 Soil classification in Belarus: history and current problems V. Tsyrybka, H. Ustsinava of taxonomic units. In the WRB system, classifying Conclusions is done based on diagnostic horizons, without taking into account the factors of soil formation and the features of the soil-forming process. In the na- Historically developed and actively used in soil tional classification of Belarus, the leading principle mapping in the Republic of Belarus, the genet- of soil type identification is the genetic approach, in ic classification of soils, in which 13 soil types are which emphasis is placed on the conditions of soil identified, is quite complete and informative for the formation. country. However, the separation of some types of The most widely discussed correlation of the Be- soil is controversial. From the stand point of uni- larusian soil classification and the WRB system was fication and generality of understanding in the se- created by the scientists of the department of soil lection of soil types, the optimal solution is to rely science and land information systems of the Geo- on the classical definition of soil type, implying the graphical Faculty of the Belarusian State University. association in a given taxon of soils with a combi- The most famous and respected specialist in this in- nation of properties and characteristics due to the stitution is N.V. Klebanovich. They published a soil course of a particular set of soil-forming processes. map of Belarus in the WRB classification, based on It is advisable to think about separating out the a medium-scale map in the national classification anthropogenically transformed soil type–allocating (Klebanovich et al. 2011), which reflects the features a cultural soil-forming process that forms soils of a of the country’s soil cover much more accurately. particular type. The processes of soil changes un- The revised version after the changes in the classi- der negative anthropogenic impact towards their fication of WRB was also published (Klebanovich deterioration should be generalised as a degrada- 2015). This map shows 13 taxonomic units, partial- tion process and regarded as antipode to another ly corresponding to the genetic types of soils of the anthropogenic soil-forming process. Belarusian classification. The map also reflects the Further improvement of the nomenclatural list greatest distribution of Retisols (Arenic), Gleyic Re- of soils of Belarus at the level of the type should first tisols and Luvisols (Siltic) in the soil cover of Be- of all be based on the presence or absence of gen- larus. eral soil-forming processes (types of soil formation) The proposed approach to the correlation of ge- and, if possible, correlated with the international netic soil types in the Belarusian classification to soil classification scheme to improve cooperation the soil groups WRB is shown in Table 3 (Klebano- opportunities with soil scientists of other countries. vich 2015).

Table 3. Correlation between international WRB and Belarusian soil classification systems (Klebanovich 2015, modified)

Belarusian soil classification scheme (1980) International WRB scheme (2015) Sod-carbonate (developing on ancient alluvium) Chernozems/Phaeozems Sod-carbonate (other) Leptosols Brown forest Luvisols Podzolic Podzols Sod-podzolic (fine textured) Luvisols Sod-podzolic (coarse textured) Retisols/Planosols Podzolic waterlogged Gleyic Podzols Stagnosols/Planosols Sod-podzolic waterlogged (depending on the subtype) Gleyic/Stagnic Retisols Sod waterlogged (depending on the subtype) Gleysols/Stagnosols Peat-bog (ground water) Hemic Histosols Peat-bog (water from atmospheric precipitations) Fibric Histosols Alluvial sod and sod waterlogged Fluvic Gleysols Alluvial boggy Fluvic Histosols Anthropogenically transformed Various units

46 Citation: Bulletin of Geography. Physical Geography Series 2018, 14, http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/bgeo-2018-0003 V. Tsyrybka, H. Ustsinava Soil classification in Belarus: history and current problems

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Citation: Bulletin of Geography. Physical Geography Series 2018, 14, http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/bgeo-2018-0003 47