Comparative Characteristics of Mountain-Forest and Mountain-Meadow Soils of Dolgorukovskaya Yayla (the Crimean Mountains)

Abstract

A comparative study of mountain-meadow and mountain-forest soils was performed within the entire Dolgorukovskaya Yayla—a plateau on the northern macroslope of the Main Ridge of the Crimean Mountains—in the altitudinal range from 560 to 975 m a.s.l. Soil morphology, texture, acidity, exchangeable cations, nonsilicate iron content, parameters of the humus status, and optical characteristics of soils were studied. Forest soils on the entire slope are assigned to acid and dark burozems (Cambisols, Luvisols); they are characterized by similar morphological properties and profile patterns of clay, humus, and nonsilicate iron. Mountain-meadow, mountain-meadow chernozem-like, and residual-carbonate soils (Phaeozems) are formed under meadow vegetation in the upper part of the plateau, and soils transitional to piedmont chernozems (Chernozems) are located in its lower part. Humus reserves in the 0- to 50-cm-thick soil layer varied from 16.6 to 42.2 kg/m2 under meadows and from 10.7 to 18.8 kg/m2 under forests. Soils under forest and meadow vegetation were characterized by an increase in acidity and a decrease in base saturation with the increase in the altitude. Acidity was generally higher in forest soils, while the difference in this parameter between forest and meadow soils in the upper part of the plateau was minimal. In soils under meadows, the content of oxalate-extractable iron also increased with the altitude, and its mean content in the A horizon (226 ± 67 mg/100) was higher than that in forest soils (183 ± 41 mg/100 g). More intense color of soils under grass vegetation as compared to soils under forests is mainly explained by the differences in the rate of organic matter humification and optical density of humic acids, the total humus content being similar in both groups of soils.