Soil mapping in “Pochvovedenie” journal (review of publications since 1899)

Abstract

The overview of publications on soil cartography in “Pochvovedenie”/“Eurasian Soil Science” journal for the period 1899–2020 demonstrates a high diversity of themes and certain trends in the number and dynamics of papers. Their total number (365), calculated per 5-year-long intervals, was distributed rather evenly among these 121 years: approximately 10–15 papers in each interval, although three maximums are rather clear. The first one fell on the post-war interval and was followed by 1965–1970 and 2010–2015 maximums. Discussion of large-scale maps dominated the early publications, many of them tackled soil surveys and applied problems; in the mid-century papers, soil maps of various regions of the country were described since it was time of extensive terrain investigations; numerous were also papers concerning methodology of soil mapping. New approaches and technique were actively discussed in the papers at the turn of centuries, such as remote sensing or digital soil mapping. Along with map compilation issues, there are publications on applying information provided by soil maps for both traditional and novel purposes: schemes of zoning in the former case and development of prognostic maps or assessment of pedodiversity in the latter case. The majority of papers on zoning, concern soil-geographical (later soil-ecological) schemes, whereas the derived types of zoning, for example, ameliorative or erosional, are discussed in few papers. The performed overview may be regarded as summing up the results of traditional soil mapping development with emphasizing its most valuable achievements, as well as indicating the initial signs of new trends.

Keywords

• soil maps
• dynamic of publications
• thematic map groups
• soil-geographical zoning