Interpretation of Cambisols on the soil map of the Russian Federation

Abstract

Cambisols – soils in the WRB system with a broad range of properties and occurring in diverse environments – have been chosen as an example for interpretation of soil units on the updated version of the Soil Map of the Russian Federation (1988), which is essential for communicating soil knowledge. We have compared three soil maps with legends in the FAO or WRB system with the updated soil map of Russia to identify areas corresponding to Cambisols; we analyzed definitions and diagnostics of Cambisols in the FAO/WRB system in its historical development and compared them with diagnostics of soil units on the updated soil map of Russia. Soils of three metamorphic orders in the new Russian classification generally correspond to the definition of Cambisols with the best coincidence for burozems (Dystric or Eutric Cambisols) and less complete coincidence for rzhavozems and cryometamorphic soils; identification of Yakutian pale soils in the WRB system is rather ambiguous. The scale of the Russian map (1 : 2.5 M) and rather detailed soil names in the legend require more complete WRB soil names; for this purpose, several principal and supplementary qualifiers may be used, or even new ones may be borrowed from other reference groups.