Section: Monitoring of anthropogenically disturbed areas
The article is devoted to soils of the technogenic landscape (Technosols according to WRB) formed on contaminated
man-caused lake sediments that have come on the daylight area after a change in the hydrological regime and the
stopping of contaminated sewage into the lake. The investigated territory is located in the Vyatka Valley in the tailing
pits of chemical enterprises in Kirovo-Chepetsk (Kirov Region, Russia). The thickness of the soil profile is limited by a
dense gypsum crust lying at a depth of 30 cm and contributing to waterlogging of soils. Unlike the surrounding acidic
alluvial soils, they are characterized by an alkaline reaction, contrast of the upper and lower parts of the young soil. The
participation of the alluvial process and moisture-loving vegetation in the formation of the profile leads to a change
in the composition and properties of the soil, especially the upper horizons. In comparison with the bottom sediments
and the lower layers of soils in the upper horizons, the share of the aluminosilicate component in the mineralogical and
chemical compositions is higher, the alkalinity is lower, and the pollution level sharply decreases. According to biological
indices, the decayed litter and humus horizon are close to the humus horizons of surrounding alluvial soils. The soil
and vegetation cover formed on technogenic lake sediments in the floodplain prevents active erosion of the underlying
undeveloped contaminated sediments during the flood time and the dissolution of gypsum crusts, which inhibit the
mobility of contaminated technogenic deposits.
Keywords: soil formation, technogenic sediments, gypsum crust, chemical soil contamination
Article published in number 4 for 2018 DOI: 10.25750/1995-4301-2018-4-024-033
ISSN 1995-4301
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