Soil science at the turn of the century: Results and challenges

摘要

The Third Congress of the Dokuchaev Soil Science Society is being held on the eve of the 21st century. This circumstance calls for a historical approach to the analysis of the current state of soil science to determine its further development. In this context, it would be right to remind ourselves that modem soil science as a part of natural history goes back to the late 19th century, when V.V. Dokuchaev substantiated his concept of soil as a specific natural body formed due to the long-term interaction of plants and animals with rocks under different climatic and topographic conditions. Soil science passed a long and successful route since that time: its conceptual basis has been elaborated, main principles and regularities of pedogenesis and soil geography have been established, and basic methods of soil studies--profile-genetic and comparative-geographical-have been developed. These methods, complemented with detailed studies on chemical, physical, and biological soil properties and processes, served as the basis for soil taxonomy and classification, and made it possible to assess the soil diversity and estimate soil resources. The results of these studies have expanded the theoretical basis for land management and soil reclamation.