Soil degradation processes on agricultural lands of Russia

摘要

Published and archived materials on soil degradation processes in agricultural lands of Russia are summarized. Distribution, areas, diagnostics, and criteria for the assessment of degradation processes used in official documents (land cadasters and instructions) are analyzed. It is shown that the diagnostics of soil degradation and existing evaluation scales need improvement. Methods to assess degraded soils based on their properties and their share in the soil cover (the percentage of strongly and moderately degraded soils in a particular soil delineation) are proposed.