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Soil geography as a physical geography discipline
Abstract
Contemporary soil science resembles geography in being a scientific discipline whose range encourages separation into a series of detailed sub-disciplines that often nevertheless bring together knowledge from the fields of research of two or more scientific disciplines. This interdisciplinary nature of the research applied in soil geography combined with the lack of an unambiguous definition of its scope, as well as a recognition that the numbers involved in this sub-discipline in Poland are limited, while the pedogeographical research that Polish geographers do is little popularized, to encourage the author to take this issue further in print. The aim of the present article has thus been to seek to define soil geography as a detailed geographical sub-discipline, to detail its research topics and scientific paradigm and to point to the linkages between it and other spheres of knowledge. A description is given of the multifunctionality of soil in the geograp hical environment, and the consequences of this are indicated. One such is the evolution of different research aims in connection with soil cover, as well as various approaches to soil taxonomy. The rapid develo pment of research on soil cover is noted, and this is seen to reflect the similarly rapid changes ongoing in the environment under the influence of both civilisational and natural factors. In the face of such a conditioning, soil geography may be defined as a scientific discipline - within both geography and soil science - that deals with the distribution of soils across the Earth' surface (or part thereof), as well as the causes underpinning their spatial variability as conditioned under the chronological and chorological influence of pedogenic factors both natural and anthropogenic. While traditional soil science sees soils as research objects that are natural configurations with a clearly vertical differentiation of soil properties, soil geography is concerned with the soil cover, which is made subject to procedures of scientific conclusion-drawing, the aim being to account for the causes of heterogeneity and geographical variability on various scales from the micro- to the mega-. The article makes it clear that so il geography has a chance as never before to become a progressive sub-discipline of geography oriented at study of a nomological nature. The sub-discipline's strengths can be considered to lie in its interdisciplinary research teams which take in, not only the study of the spatial structure to natural soils with undisturbed pedogenic processes, but also cultural, industrial and urban soils, and the whole complex of both natural and anthropogenic factors underpinning the development of the soil mosaic over space and time.
The variety of subject matter present in geographical research is regarded by many geographers as an immanent feature of the scientific discipline they represent. In turn, that discipline's "compositioning", i.e. creation of new ideas expanding yet further the hitherto-existing state of knowledge is taken to indicate the creation of thrusts to research that make it possible to gain a multifaceted understanding of each component of the geographical environment, as well as the interrelationships between them. Geography, which became much more of an "interface discipline" (i.e. one characterised by interweaving of its own subject matter and that of other scientific disciplines) in the second half of the 20th century., assumed yet more clearly the features of interdisciplinary study where cognitive and practical issues were concerned. One investigative direction in geography which draws on several scientific disciplines is the geography of soils. The aim of the work described here was to present the role played by soil in the system of the natural environment, as well as to point to those diagnostic features useful in assessinug the evolution and functioning of the system of the physico-geographical environment. An attempt was also made to take a critical look at the development of the Polish school of soil geography, as well as its participation in the development of geography as a scientific discipline. The paper evidenced the multifunctional nature of the pedosphere, as well as the essential role soils play when it comes to the interpretation of natural and anthropogenic processes ongoing in the megasystem that is the geographical environment, as well as the conditions of the natural environment in which the development of soil cover took place. What was thus made clear was the indicative value of soil in geographical studies as broadly conceived, thereby adding further weight to the words of S Leszczycki (1937), for whom the development of pedological research was a prerequisite to any in-depth geographical study. It is emphasized that the development of soil geography as a sub-discipline of geography will undoubtedly have the effect of strengthening the position of our branch of knowledge among the earth sciences.
In their quest to understand the operation of mechanisms shaping the environment and the changes in the functioning of the entire natural system these bring about (as well as the associated effects in terms of the spatial differentiation to the properties individual environmental components manifest), people look for the simplest yardsticks and indicators. On the one hand, such measures ought to be precise instruments allowing the inherent regularities to be evaluated. On the other hand, they should allow information as broad and reliable as possible to be obtained where the object of study constituted by the natural environment is concerned. This paper details the value of soils as indicators in the study of the natural environment. It demonstrates how direct and indirect indicators can be used to evaluate changes taking place in natural systems under the influence of both natural and manmade external factors. The results of the analysis make it clear thatsoils' interactive connections with other elements of the natural environment render them highly useful in the indicative assessment of changes ongoing in a natural system as a whole. Being the consequence of the spatial and temporal differentiatio n of pedogenic factors, the heterogeneity of soil cover is a source of information on the functioning of the natural environment in geographical and dynamic terms. The soil-related indicators and measure s in question may be direct in character, i.e. determinable on the basis of results from field and laboratory measurement; or else may be indirect, relating to the location of a given diagnostic horizon down a vertical cross-section (as with hidden chronosequences and lithological-soil stratigraphy, in particular), or that of a given pedon in the spatial mosaic of the soil cover (as inter alia with toposequences and uncovered chronosequences). Soil indicators are most often resorted to in diagnosing the state of the natural environment and attempting to reconstruct it in palaeogeographic terms, as well as in assessing the resistance of habitats to anthropogenic factors and determining the degree to which latter have been transformed structurally and functionally.
Ultramorphoscopic analysis offers one way of gaining an insight into temporal and spatial changes that have taken place in the environment. The underlying basis here is a system of classified features; processes of physical, chemical and biological weathering; and processes of transport through different environments. It is the aim of this article to present the use of morphoscopic SEM studies of podsolic soils from different parts of central and northern Europe in reconstructing the way litho- and pedogenetic conditions evolved in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. By drawing on the research carried out, it has been possible to point to certain indicative morphoscopic features of quartz grains that are characteristic for defined morphogenic environments.
Stratigraphy of deposits filling small valleys in central Poland evidences two cycles in development of periglacial environment during the Vistulian period. Each cycle contains a phase with milder climate and a phase with greatest coldness and both end with a phases of intensive erosion. The younger cycle is dated at 45-10 ka BP and includes the phase of less severe periglacial climate (interpleniglacial), the apogee of cold between 20 and 15 ka BP which coincides with the main stage of the Vistulian (Baltic) Glaciation on the area of North Poland, and the erosion phase during the warming Vistulian decline. The older cycle contains the phase of final part of Eemian Interglacial and the climatically milder first part of the Vistulian period, the phase of maximum of coldness and the intense erosion phase during the period before 45 ka BP. It is possible, that transgression of ice sheet onto the area of northern Poland corresponds with the older cycle too - analogically to the younger cycle. Such glaciation is stated to have been existed within the lower part of the Vistula river valley during the period 70-50 ka BP.
The differentiation of the properties of soils at the level of pedons constitutes one of the most essential elements of the functional--structural analysis of the ecosystems. The purpose of the studies presented in this paper was to assess the spatial variability of the soil cover as conditioned by the micro-habitat differentiation and expressed through the variability of thickness of the genetic horizons for individual pedons, as well as spatial differences in acidity, moisture, conductivity, and organic carbon content. The studies were conducted on podzolic soils covered with forest vegetation. The results of studies carried out and described here indicate an influence of the local topo-habitat conditions on the spatial variability of soil properties. The following results can be drawn on the basis of the results obtained: 1) within the organic horizon the highest spatial differentiation of the properties considered was observed in the soils of Finland and Norway, while within the humus and enrichment horizons it was greater in the soils of the Polish part of the study area; 2) an exception to the above regularity is constituted by moisture; the highest spatial differentiation at this factor within all the genetic horizons was always observed in the soils characterised by its highest values; 3) spatial differentiation of the properties analysed is greater within the organic and humus horizons than in the enrichment horizon; 4) the biggest differences between the particular variants of the experiment, implemented during the four years of study, were displayed by: a) within the organic layer - the pedons of the northern and central parts of the study area, from Norway to Latvia, b) within the humus layer - the marginal pedons of FN1 and PL3, as well as the pedons of the central part of the study area - from Lithuania and Latvia, c) within the enrichment layer - the pedons of the Polish part of the study area; 5) interdependence was observed between the length of the micro-transects and the variability of the soil properties analysed; and 6) the strongest interrelation between the analysed properties were registered for the moisture - organic carbon content and moisture - conductivity.
The influence of the geographically differentiated pedogenic factors on the properties of the podzolic soils of the pine forest ecosystems located along a meridional transect stretching between northern Finland (69°44′ N) to southern Poland (50°28′ N) was studied. The geographical trends in soil properties and the diagnostic soil features were determined. The results of many years of research on the spatial differentiation of the properties of podzolic soils confirmed the relations between the geographical differentiation of the pedogenic factors, the spatial variability of the structures of the soil cover, and the spatial variability of soil properties. In addition, an essential role of the soil in the functioning of boreal pine forest ecosystems was demonstrated. The following results can be drawn on the basis of the results obtained: 1) the spatial differentiation of the soil cover analysed is associated with the age of the original sedimentation, the texture properties of the substrate from which the pedons developed, the hygro-thermal properties of climate, and the structure of the vegetation cover; 2) along with the increase of the age of the soils towards south and the decrease of the humid character of climate the increase of the following parameters was noted: content of quartz and of the resistant minerals, the value of grain abrasion index (Wo), the value of the nonhomogenous index (Nm), the deficit of moisture, the thickness of the soil's solum, the ratio Ch:Cf, the degree of humification, the absolute content of the hydrogen ions, the contents of the bivalent cations in the sorption complex of the soils. The decrease was also noted of: the content of the non-resistant minerals, the value of the average grain diameter indicator (AGD), the thickness of the organic horizon (O), the storage of the organic carbon in the entire pedon, the content of the ammonia salts in the mineralised nitrogen, the saturation of the sorption complex of the soils with hydrogen cations, the total content of phosphorus and of the phosphorus accessible for plants, the value of the Schwertmann's indicator, and the value of the illuviation indicator after Mokma; 3) the highest ecological efficiency, as measured with the enzymatic activity, is displayed by the soils of the central part of the area considered.
The standing of 8 kinds of soil bodies as soil individuals was evaluated in the light of the following principles, derived from an analysis of basic ideas: 1) Classes are abstract fields, not groups of individuals. 2) Artificial individuals of continuous universes are different from natural individuals of particulate universes. 3) Classes in continuous universes are independent of individuals. 4) Artificial individuals are member-bodies of minimum size. Soil particles, soil horizons, soil landscape units (including polypedons), and delineated soil bodies are natural individuals, but only within nonsoil universes. The universes of soil resulting from any of the common concepts of soil as an isotropic material or an anisotropic body are continuous, and contain hand specimens, soil profiles taken as bodies, "individuals", and pedons as artifical individuals. These may be regarded as soil individuals. There is need for a concept of soil corresponding to some kind of soil landscape unit.