On the 'soil' and 'land''' notions as related to substantiation of the reclamation measures

摘要

In recent decades, two different notions-"soil" and "land"-are often used as synonyms for the determination of objects for amelioration and agriculture. Frequently, the term "land" fully replaces the term "soil". This circumstance. is related to the misunderstanding of the principal differences between these notions and, more often, to the interests of different institutions. In fact, only soils are real natural and historical formations with specific properties, regimes and fertility. Only soils should be considered as direct objects for reclamation. Ungrounded attempts at using the notion of "land" as a single source of information about the properties of soils for solving the applied problems of amelioration and agriculture may be the reason for serious errors and dangerous ecological consequences.