The possibility of physico-theoretical methods in soil ecology (the case of modeling soil-climatic areas structure)

Abstract

The aim of the study was to consider the possibilities of up-to-date physical and theoretical methods for solving problems of soil ecology related to the mathematical description of the regularities of the systemic organization of soil-climatic areas according to hydrothermal factors of the environment. Methods. Methodological analysis of the idealizations, hypotheses and concepts was used alongside with mathematical modeling. Results. Methodological analysis of the assumptions underlying the quantitative determination of the two traditional hydrothermal coefficients (the radiation index of dryness, R/LP, and the moisture coefficient, P/E0) justifies their attribution to the marginal (boundary) soil conditions, determined mainly by climatic characteristics. From the physico-theoretical (quantitative) point of view, this is one of the reasons for their limited applicability when considering soil and ecological problems related to the quantitative description of the relationship between the types of soil thermal and water regimes and the general climatic patterns of their distribution on the earth's surface. Based on the fundamental principle of affine similarity (a variety of the general principle of symmetry), the article suggests the new generalized variables R/Eα and P/Eβ. In these variables soil moisture evaporation E(R,P), determined for the entire range of the average long-term climatic characteristics of R (radiation balance) and P (precipitation), acts as a general reference system. The specificity of the hydrothermal response of the soil substrate is determined by the corresponding structural and functional indices of similarity α and β. The physical meaning of the new variables is that they characterize the totality of radiation energy (α) and precipitation (β) use by specific soil-forming process. Conclusions. A mathematical model, based on the functional association between the generalized variables, enables predicting new structural and functional regularities (radial and tangential) in the system of soil-climatic areas. In comparison with the climatic hydro- and thermoseries proposed by V. R. Volobuev, these regularities better describe the experimental data.