Influence of Long- and Short-term Climatic Changes on Chernozem Soils: Central Chernozem Region of Russia

In contemporary world geography, there still remains a paucity of information that reveals the multi-faceted interrelationship of soils with the other components of the natural environment. This is extremely important information in light of current global ecological problems, studies, and policy decisions, one of which is the problem of climate change. While these have been long discussed in the scientific circles, during the last few years this problem acquired new urgency in connection with new data, reflecting “long” sequences in paleoclimatic reconstructions and a comparatively short, but detailed series of instrumental meteorological and climatologic observations (e.g., Chambers and Ogle, 2002; Brönniman et al., 2008). We will continue the discussion based on the following questions: “In what direction might the change in global climate go?” and “Is this change subordinated by trend dependence or does it occur within cyclic climatic dynamics?” (e.g., Bunyard, 2001; Lupo, 2008). It is well known that soil is considered a rapidly changing system, which sensitively reacts to changes in environmental conditions and, firstly, to climate change (Buol et al., 1997). Therefore, it seems that in finding new approaches to the problem of climate change decisions it may be possible to find among others the study of soils as indicators of climate change. The role of soils in the study of chronological variations of climate is reflected in a number of publications, many of which are oriented toward the use of soils in reconstructions of long-period climate changes (e.g., Gennadiev, 1990; Buol et al., 1997; Aleksandrovskii and Aleksandrovskaya, 2005; Chendev, 2008). In the last three decades, fewer studies have been published about soils as indicators of a contemporary climate change (e.g., Ovechkin and Isaev, 1985; Solovyov, 1989; Chendev et al. 2012).The main purpose of this article is the identification of forest-steppe and steppe chernozem soils (Eastern European Mollisols) reactions to climate change with different periodicities.