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Physical Indicators and Mechanism of Vertisolization: A Case Study of the Cis-Caucasian Vertic Chernozem

  • SOIL PHYSICS
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Abstract

Vertisolization —the development of vertic properties and vertic horizons—is a widespread process leading to adverse physical and technological properties of chernozems.. There is still no generally accepted theory of the genesis of this phenomenon, although it is a priori clear that the physicochemical mechanisms of the interaction between fine particles and soil water in swell–shrink cycles are the underlying factors. Patterns of the dynamics of the main categories of soil porosity in dependence on the soil water content have been studied at a quantitative level in the genetic horizons of a Cis-Caucasian vertic leached chernozem (Luvic Chernozem (Epiloamic, Katoclayic, Aric, Novic, Bathyvertic)) in comparison with a chernozem without vertic properties. The physical state of vertic soils is represented by structural diagrams of porosity as a function of the specific volumes of various pore categories depending on the volumetric water content. The diagrams are constructed using the experimental data on the textural porosity of aggregates obtained by saturating individual aggregates with a nonpolar liquid (toluene) and humidification with hot water vapor and a fundamental ionic electrostatic model of the disjoining pressure. Vertisolization is characterized by a significant reduction in the textural porosity and a predominance of specific volumes of the external pore space (cracks and interaggregate voids) in the overall structure of the porous dispersed system. The most likely cause of vertisolization is a sharp (twofold) decrease in the effective width of the electrical double layer in the dispersed system with an increase in the particle interaction through stable layers of liquid phase (compaction effect). In turn, this brings about adverse technological properties of the vertic chernozems and lumpy fragmentation upon drying with the formation of large cracks, which complicates their tillage and agricultural activities in general.

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Notes

  1. The following designations are used: m is mass (kg) with the subscripts 0 for the initial (air-dry) state; sat for the soil saturated with nonpolar liquid, and w for wetted soil; ρ is density (kg/m3) with the subscripts b for bulk density, s for solid phase, a for aggregates, tol for toluene, and l for water; W is weight water content (%) or the equivalent specific water volume (10–5 m3/kg) with the subscripts h for hydroscopic water, а for adsorbed strongly bound water, and т for melting state; D is the textural density or equivalent specific volume of the textural pore space (10–5 m3/kg) with the subscripts lim for limit, g for the pore space filled with gas (air), and т for melting; V is the specific volumes of the pore space (10–5 m3/kg) with the subscripts t for total; g for filled with gas (air); c for cracks, gaps between aggregates, channels, macropores, or open void space; S is specific surface (m2/g) with the subscript BET for the BET-based estimation according to the isotherms of water vapor desorption; λ is the effective width of electrical double layer (m); Pos is “osmotic” pressure (Pa); Es is the surface energy of the interaction between solid and liquid phases (J/kg) according to [2]; P is disjoining pressure; b (kg/kg) and a (J/kg) are parameters of the fundamental ionic electrostatic model of the disjoining pressure according to [30, 31]; and A is a physically grounded parameter of the exponential model for textural porosity dependence on the water content, Eq. (10) (10–5 m3/kg).

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Funding

The work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project no. 19-29-05006\19).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119991, Moscow, Russia

    A. V. Smagin

  2. Institute of Forestry, Russian Academy of Sciences, 143030, Uspenskoe, Moscow oblast, Russia

    A. V. Smagin

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Correspondence to A. V. Smagin.

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Translated by G. Chirikova

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Smagin, A.V. Physical Indicators and Mechanism of Vertisolization: A Case Study of the Cis-Caucasian Vertic Chernozem. Eurasian Soil Sc. 53, 902–912 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1064229320070157

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