ПОЧВЕННО-ГЕОМОРФОЛОГИЧЕСКАЯ КАТЕНА “МАЛЫЙ СЫРТ – ПРИКАСПИЙ”

Abstract

The study of the geomorphological characteristics of the Small Syrt relief using digital elevation models (DEM) and terrain models (TM)allowed to develop a regression model and to reveal the patterns of change in the slope heights in the catenas and to determine their statistical parameters. It was established that the topographic inhomogeneity in the Small Syrt has a significant effect on the manifestation of latitudinal zonality of soils. The dissection of the territory and the presence of river valleys contributes to the inhomogeneity of wetting, which leads to vertical differentiation of soils. The soil cover in the studied area belongs to the Zavolzhskaya dry steppe province represented by dark-chestnut, chestnut soils and in varying degrees, by the eroded types of meadow- and meadow-chestnut, estuary and floodplain soils, alkaline soils. Geoinformation researches of topography and soil contours showed a relationship of the change of soil types with terrain features. According to the results of field studies, morphological and physico-chemical characteristics were found and properties were presented on the profile of the main soil types. The conducted morphodynamic studies allowed to reveal the morphosculpture, spatial, linear and point landscape elements, characteristic changes in the spatial distribution of the soils related to the relief and provided new knowledge about the influence of the geomorphological features considered by the territory on their characteristics.