Characteristics of the soil cover of technogenic landscapes of the Red-Mountain coalmine

Increasing anthropogenic impact on natural landscapes causes significant violation of the integrity of the soil cover until its destruction over large areas, which leads to the ecological crisis and environmental disaster. It is known that the destruction of soil intensively occurs in areas of mining by open pit method. The territories of deposits become man-made landscapes, on the surface of which soil cover forms eventually, and this soil differs from natural landscapes. The paper describes the peculiarities of soil formed on the waste dumps of coal mines in the mountain taiga belt of the Kuznetsk Basin. For the study of man-made landscapes comparative-genetical, comparative-analytical and comparative-geographical approaches were used were used that allow to compare the soil and vegetation of the objects, give morphological characteristics of embryozem profiles. In accordance with the substantively genetic soil classification of man-made landscapes it was found that the basis of soil in Krasnogorsk coal mine are 4 types of embryozems - initial, organic-accumulative, sod and humus-accumulative. Morphologically embryozems differ in sets and expression of organic horizons. The similarity is that they all have low power and low degree of morphological differentiation into genetic horizons. Embryozem profiles vary in the set and expression of organic horizons, which reflects, first, the leading role of biological processes in the formation of the soil profile, and, secondly, the genetic subordination of all other profile-forming processes to the biological ones. Biological processes in embryozems compared with those of background soil are highly specific. Development of vegetation in the evolution of certain types of embryozems are accompanied with the complication of the floristic composition of plant groups, increasing degree of projective cover and biomass. Thus, each type of embryozems has regular plant communities that pass a certain stage of primary succession: pioneer groups on initial embryozems; simple vegetation grouping on organic-accumulative embryozems; complex plant groups on turf embryozems; prevailing closed community on humus-accumulative embryozems. The total soil-ecological condition of Krasnogorsk coal mine is quantitatively characterized by the ratio of areas occupied by different types of embryozems. Diagnosis of the state of man-made landscapes executed by mapping soil showed that the soil-ecological condition of the object under study is assessed as satisfactory. Soil-forming processes in the man-made landscape slowed because of the limiting factors (stoniness, moisture deficit, steep slopes), so in the long term embryozems develop slowly and remain on the initial or organic-accumulation stages of development.

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