Krasnodar GRES Project Volume I11 Environmental Assessment

Humic-gley soil constitutes 17% and gray forest-steppe soils 13%. They are
@ located in the area of hilly piedmonts and low mountains.
* fibrous
Dark-gray and gray forest soils account for about 10% in this part of the region.
Meadow-steppe and meadow soils were formed in flood plains and river valleys.
Meadow-chernozemic and alluvial-meadow soils are the most widespread.
Meadow-marshy and humic-gley soils were formed in depressions in the valley of
the Laba river.
Described below is a brief characteristic of the four most widespread soil types in
terms of those properties which are of interest from the viewpoint of assessing
the environmental effects of pollution by Krasnodar GRES (within the boundaries
of Krasnodar GRES effects 1.
Leached Chernozems
Leached chernozems occupy 34488 ha in the region. They were formed on loesslike
clays and heavy loams; compact chernozems were formed from deluvial clays,
chernozems were formed on Tertiary clays.
These types of chernozems boil up upon adding hydrochloric acid below the
humus horizon. In terms of thickness of the humus horizon, deep (80-120 cm) and
superdeep (more than 120 cm) chernozems are predominant, while in terms of
humus content, low-humus (4-6%) and medium-humus (more than 6%) are
prevailing.
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