Morphological and chemical properties of soils on the eastern shore of Lake Bulukhta, northern Caspian region

• Published in: Eurasian soil science Vol. 48; no. 8; pp. 781 - 791
• Main Authors: Shabanova, N. P, Kolesnikov, A. V, Bykov, A. V
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Moscow Pleiades Publishing 01-08-2015; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Analysis; Chemical properties; Chemistry; coasts; Decomposing organic matter; desalination; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; elements; Genesis and Geography of Soils; Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences; Groundwater; Groundwater levels; Humus; Hydrologic regime; Lakes; landscapes; organic matter; salinity; Seasonal distribution; Soil formation; Soil horizons; Soil properties; Soil salinity; Soil sciences; Soils; Soils, Salts in; Solonchaks; subsurface flow; Subsurface water; Surface runoff; Topography; Washout; Water flow; water table; Water, Underground; Caspian Sea; Eurasia, Caspian Sea; Caspian Sea region; dynamics of groundwater level and salinity; lacustrine landscapes; saline soils; solonetzes; catena
• ISSN: 1064-2293; 1556-195X
• DOI: 10.1134/S1064229315080074

Morphological and chemical properties of soils in a soil catena crossing the eastern coast of salt Bulukhta Lake in the northern part of the Caspian region were studied. The catena included different kinds of solonetzes and solonchaks occupying the lake bottom. The morphogenetic and analytical study of the soils made it possible to judge the intensity of the major soil-forming processes on different elements of the local topography. It was shown that the intensity of humus accumulation increases from the autonomous eluvial positions towards the accumulative positions and decreases in the superaqual landscape, where the accumulation of organic matter is limited by the high soil salinity and by the washout of humified material from the shore into the lake. In the transitional and accumulative positions of the catena with saline parent materials, the upper soil horizons are subjected to desalinization owing to the additional water inflow and transformation of surface runoff into subsurface water flows along zoogenic pores. A comparative analysis of the seasonal dynamics of the level, salinity, and chemical composition of groundwater under the soils of the catena was performed. It demonstrated that the dynamics of the groundwater level and salinity in the geochemically subordinate positions depend on the hydrological regime of the lake, which, in turn, is controlled by the amount and seasonal distribution of precipitation.