Soil-like formation in technogenic landscapes: history of study, terminology, modern aspects (review)
Intensive mining and industrial processing are inevitably accompanied by withdrawal of agricultural and forest land from the turnover. Alienation of land under mining in Siberia is accompanied by loss of the most fertile soils. Within historically formed soil areas technogenic landscapes appear, most of them result from piles of waste rocks. Their surface is weathered, leached, and gets populated with biota over time. Soil-like bodies are formed of these mineral substrates. They are characterized by a high variability of the content of fine earth, nutrients and humus accumulation, stratified differentiation of mineral strata. In post technogenic period modern signs of soil-like formation are detected during natural transformation of waste rock in different natural zones. The limiting factor in the development of soil-like bodies as living objects is geochemical peculiarities of rocks. In this review we traced the main stages of studying soil-like formations on mineral substrates and the development of conceptual and terminological apparatus. It was noted that basic and applied research of soil-like bodies of technogenic landscapes had been born in research centers of Ukraine and Russia (the Urals, Siberia, Far East) in the last century. Looking for solutions to environmental and economic restoration of soil functions in conditions of technogenesis lead to formation of a wide range of terms. Taking into account this circumstance, it is appropriate to remember their original purpose, and to correctly use them in modern integrated monitoring of soil formation. Of course, the growing amount of knowledge about soil formation in technogenic mineral substrates is attached to words and their meanings, as a result new terms of soil science should be expected to continue appearing. Computer technology will inevitably bring a new vocabulary in soil science, and form a new language style - the style of the era of informational development. The authors believe that today in basic and applied soil science it is vital to adhere to the terms (words or phrases) which are inherent in the modern scientific vocabulary and contain logical information on soil formation in technogenic mineral substrates.