SOIL -GEOGRAPHICAL AND AGROECOLOGICAL TOUR IN RUSSIA 3. – 21. August 2014 This tour is designed and supervised by specialists in soil, environmental and ecological sciences and focuses on education in soil science, ecology, botany, geography, forest and agriculture. 865 participants from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden and France have participated in the tour since 1993. CONTENTS : Zonal soils, climate, vegetation; basic features of landscapes, relief and sediments; evolution and dynamics of natural ecosystems, as well as their Holocene history are studied. Sustainable land use and environmental control, differences of nutrient dynamics in agricultural and natural ecosystems are the topic matters. The discussions are focused on soil morphology and genesis as related to soil forming factors and processes, land use changes, and soil classification (WRB). ROUTE : The tour starts in southern taiga north of Moscow ( Podzols, Podzoluvisols, Arenosols, Histosols ), crosses the forest-steppe (Albeluvisols , Luvisols ), and typical steppe zones ( Phaeozems, Chernozems ). Natural reserve Divnogorie with tertiary vegetation on Rendzic Leptosols and a monastery carved inside the chalk-rocks are visited. The unique 110-year-old experiments on sustainable land use initiated by V. Dokuchaev (Stone steppe reserve) with the deep Russian Chernozem are demonstrated. Semi-desert soils: Kastanozems, Solonetzes, Calcisols, Vertisols , and an evolutionary sequence of Fluvisols within the Volga valley are shown near Volgograd. Exploring salt neo tectonics and Solonchaks in the desert reserve combined with visit of the salt lake Baskunchak – Russian analogy of the Dead Sea. About one half of the soil types of the World is presented on 30 soil profiles. The tour takes 19 days and covers 3000 km. Students, researchers and teaching professionals are invited. This tour may be interesting to specialists making their own or joint research with Russian colleagues, as well as to non-specialists wishing to get acquainted with Russian nature, history, and also habits and ways. The bus tour with camping stops (camping in tents) and visits of museums and famous historical monuments is in English and German. Registration deadline: March 20, 2014 COST : about 1100 € (includes all expenses in Russia: bus, food, hotel in Moscow, ...) The airline tickets to Moscow (~300 €) and visa fees (~80 €) are not included. The actual info and extended review about the next tour can be seen in: www.uni-goettingen.de/soilrus ADDITIONAL INFO about the tour, costs, program, funding, and other may be obtained from: Prof. Dr. Yakov Kuzyakov , Dept. of Soil Science University of Göttingen, D-37077 Göttingen, GERMANY Tel.: +49-551-399765 Fax: +49-551-393310 e-mail: [email protected] Each participant get printed excursion guide and the CD „World Soils“ with description of all trip places and 3500 pictures of soils, plants, landscapes, maps, diagrams etc. www.uni- www.uni- www.uni- www.uni- www.uni- goettingen.de/soilrus goettingen.de/soilrus goettingen.de/soilrus goettingen.de/soilrus goettingen.de/soilrus .