Before you find out what swamp soils are, it makes sense to recall what “soil” is in general. Many immediately presented the school class, teachers of natural history and his words about the hard shell of the Earth - the lithosphere. Its upper layer has a unique quality - fertility. This is the soil. The fertile layer has been formed over millions of years.
Soil Formation Factors
The geography of soils in Russia is vast, as is the country itself. Mother rocks, climate, vegetation, terrain - all these factors affect the formation of the fertile layer. In Russian open spaces stretching from the southern mountains to the northern seas, these factors are very different. Accordingly, the land that gives people a harvest is not the same. On the territory there are many climatic zones with different rainfall, light, temperature, flora and fauna. In Russia, one can admire the white silence of snows and sand dunes, see taiga forests and birch groves, flowering meadows and marshy swamps.
Anthropogenic landscapes exist - a person more and more often intervenes in nature, changing the thickness and quality of the fertile layer (not always for the better). But only one centimeter of humus or humus (of which the "living mass" consists) is formed 200-300 years! How carefully you need to treat the soil so that future generations do not remain face to face with deserts and swamps!
Soil diversity
There are zonal soils. Their formation is strictly subject to the law of the change of flora, fauna, etc., at different latitudes. For example, Arctic soils are common in the North. They are scarce. The formation of even a weak humus layer in permafrost conditions, where only mosses and lichens are present from plants, is impossible. In the subarctic zone there are tundra soils. The latter are richer than the Arctic, but scarce in comparison with the podzolic lands of the taiga and mixed forests. With a decrease in acidity, the introduction of mineral and organic additives, they allow you to grow many varieties of crops.
There are forest soils, chernozems (the most fertile), desert. All of them are the subject of research in such sciences as soil geography, etc. These knowledge systems also pay great attention to the study of non-zonal lands, which include wetland soils. They can be found in any climate zone.
Swamp formation
The geography of soils in Russia contains information that the layers we discuss in swamps and marshy forests form when they are stagnantly moistened by rain (atmospheric precipitation), surface water (lakes, rivers, etc.) or underground aquifers (groundwater sources). Simply put, swamp soils form under water-loving vegetation. Bogs are forest (pine, birch there are very different from their forest counterparts, they are small, "clumsy"), shrubby (heather, rosemary), mossy and grassy.
The formation of bog soils is facilitated by two processes. Firstly, this is peat formation, when plant debris accumulates on the surface, as it is poorly decayed. Secondly, gleying, when iron oxide is converted to nitrous during the biochemical destruction of minerals. This difficult natural work was called the “swamp process”.
Swamps come if ...
More often bog soils are formed during the hydrogenic succession of land. But sometimes river open spaces turn into a swampy place with stagnant water. For example, such a process has been taking place on the great Russian Volga River for several years now. Due to the cascade of hydroelectric power stations and reservoirs, it flows more slowly, stagnates. Urgent rescue measures are needed.
Thus, if, for one reason or another, the speed of the rivers decreases, they become uncontrollably polluted. The bottom springs that feed them are silted up. But despite the "cry of nature", people do not care about them. Therefore, there is a great risk of turning the blue arteries of Russia into standing swamps.
Characteristics of peat bog soils
As mentioned above, peat is formed from a dense mass of insufficiently decaying remnants of bog plants. Although there are places where the process does not occur at all. The top layer of the earth, covered with "remains" deposits, is peat bog soils. Are they suitable for farming? It all depends on geographic features.
In high peat soils, a thick layer of organic matter could theoretically enrich the upper layer of the earth. But it is badly decomposed. The active formation of humus is impeded by the high acidity of the medium, its weak bioactivity, which is also called "soil respiration." By the way, the process of absorption of oxygen by the earth, emission of carbon dioxide, production by organisms living in the upper bowels, and thermal energy are called so. The soil profile of such bogs is primitive. It has two horizons: peat and peat – gley. Glue is an earthen profile to which iron oxide gives a bluish, blue or blue color. Such forces do not differ in manpower. They are of little use for use in agriculture.
Characterization of wetland-podzolic soils
Swamp – podzolic soils can form where boggy mixed forests with a moss-grass cover are spread. Or where there are wet meadows formed by cutting down areas covered with trees. How to distinguish swamp-podzolic soils from podzolic? Everything is very simple.
In the bog podzols, persistent signs of gleying are observed. Outwardly, they look like rusty ocher and bluish spots. There are also streaks, smears that permeate all horizons of the profile. Two types of soil formation influence the development of swamp-podzolic lands: swamp and podzolic. As a result, both peat horizon and gleying, as well as podzolic and illuvial layers are observed.
Characteristics of wetland-meadow soils
Swamp-meadow soils are formed where plains and terraces of rivers, covered by sedge and reed, have depressions. At the same time, additional surface moistening is observed (flood for at least 30 days) and at the same time constant soil recharge at a depth of about 1.5 m.
The aeration zone is unstable. We are talking about a layer of the earth's crust, located between the day surface and the surface of groundwater. The soils in question are relevant not only for flat plains and river terraces with close groundwater, but also for forest-steppes. Sedges, plants from the chytinaceous family, and reeds are readily localized on them. The genetic horizons of such lands differentiate very clearly.
Swamp-meadow soils “live” in an unstable water regime. When the dry period begins, the vegetation of the marshes gives way to meadow, and vice versa. The following picture is observed: the profile of the earth is one, but life on it is different. In the dry period, if the waters are mineralized, salinization of territories occurs. And if the liquid is slightly mineralized, then dry swamp silts are formed.
Krasnodar Territory and its soils
The soils of the Krasnodar Territory are diverse. In the Primorsko-Akhtarsky, Slavic, Temryuk regions, they are marsh and chestnut, rusty due to the many estuaries and bays. On them, residents of the Kuban grow vineyards and rice. In the Labinsky and Uspensky regions, soils are podzolic and chernozemic. These lands are very fertile. They are suitable for obtaining rich harvests of vegetables and sunflower.
On the Black Sea coast, the soils of the Krasnodar Territory are mountain-forest. Magnificent orchards and vineyards grow here. On the Azov-Kurgan Plain, chernozems are everywhere. No wonder the Kuban is called the breadbasket of Russia. Its soils are so rich in humus that local residents often joke: "Even a stick stuck in the ground grows here."
During the Second World War, the Nazis loaded black soil into railway cars and exported to Germany, realizing what natural value it is. It is good that not all fertile strata have been destroyed by ill-treatment of people. But even with large reserves of gifted land, a person must carry out agricultural work carefully. Whether it is soils of versatile use or unsuitable for cultivating swamps, one must remember that rash interference in the life of natural complexes is dangerous for all living things.