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According to published and archival data, the dynamics of soil plowing in Tula oblast in general and in its particular districts has been traced. It has been found that the active agricultural development in the southern part of the modern Tula oblast began no earlier than in the middle of the 17th century. According to the maps of different years, changes in the area of arable land in the Lokna River basin (Plavsk district of Tula oblast) from the end of the 18th century until the present time have been determined. The reliability of our data on the history of plowing of the territory is confirmed by the literature data. The composition of field crops and changes in farming systems during the period under review have been reconstructed, and a significant conservatism of these indicators has been revealed: the fallow three-field system dominated throughout the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century; the predominance of rye among winter crops and oats among spring crops remained until the 1970s. According to the WaTEM/SEDEM and using historical data on changes in the main factors of soil erosion as input parameters, the intensity and volumes of rainfall runoff for the selected stages of development of the Lokna River basin have been calculated. In order to compare the results with the literature data for the period of 1980–1993, the rates and volumes of snowmelt washout have been estimated. An assessment of the reliability of the reconstructed model parameters for remote historical epochs has been carried out. The analysis of historical changes in the factors and rates of erosion indicates that the maximum extent of plowed area and the maximum intensity of erosional processes in Lokna River took place in the last quarter of the 19th–early 20th centuries. The influence of particular geomorphic positions of arable land on the rates and volumes of soil erosion has been revealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On soil maps and in land management documents, the excessively moistened areas of the earth surface are shown differently, and their areas on three different source maps (large-scale soil survey map, land cadaster map, and land management planning map) may differ by five times. According to current land legislation, soil maps should be used for cadastral valuation and cadastral division of arable land. It is supposed that the three sources of information on the land cover do not contradict one another. We analyzed the allocation of waterlogged lands on these source maps in order to find the reason for the existing discrepancies in the areas of waterlogged lands. Soil and land management materials from four rounds of the soil survey in 1937–1996 and remote sensing materials from 1968 to 2018 were analyzed. It was found that, until the third round of soil surveys, the concept of waterlogged area was the same for soil scientists, cadastral specialists, and land surveyors and meant the areas of limited use for arable farming because of the excessive atmospheric or ground moistening. Since the mid-1980s, soil scientists have ceased to consider waterlogging as a factor limiting land use, whereas land management specialists have not changed their approaches. In the cadastral division of land, the use of soil maps has become fragmentary; often, land plots are characterized as agreed with the owner. In 1958, the area of waterlogged soils on the soil map of Tambov oblast was 14%; all these lands had certain limitations of their use for arable farming. On the soil map of 1986, the area of waterlogged soils reached 65%, though only 6% of them were of limited use for arable farming. Independent retrospective monitoring methods applied by us to this territory indicated that limitations in the arable use of land related to the soil water regime are observed on about 16% of the territory of Tambov oblast. It is suggested that the allocation of waterlogged soils and lands should be unified on the basis on the technology of retrospective monitoring of soil and land covers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A classical soil line (SL) in the RED-NIR spectral space is specified by two coefficients “a” and “b.” In this form, it does not characterize soil types and subtypes. A multitemporal soil line (MSL) represents the major axis of the ellipse describing all possible pairs of RED-NIR values characterizing a bare soil surface for a given pixel of remote sensing images. The MSL in the RED-NIR spectral space is specified by several (N) coefficients. The resulting N-dimensional space of MSL coefficients makes it possible to give unique characteristics for each type and subtype of soils in the following zonal soil sequence: soddy-podzolic soils, light gray forest soils, gray forest soils, dark gray forest soils, podzolized chernozems, and leached chernozems. The analysis of variance allows us to state that the soils of this sequence significantly differ from one another in the characteristic sets of MSL coefficients. In other words, these coefficients characterize soil types and subtypes, and the MSL can be considered an empirical soil line (ESL) of the given type and subtype of soil. A classical SL is an integrity of ESLs of different soils within the given scene of remote sensing data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An assessment of the agronomic potential of arable lands in the forest-steppe zone of Russia (by the example of separate soil-agronomic districts) on the basis of the soil-agroclimatic index developed under the supervision of I.I. Karmanov is considered. The agricultural areas (64) separated on the territory of Russia and characterizing soil-agroclimatic conditions for cultivation of major and accompanying crops are differentiated into soil-agronomic districts (SADs) with due account for the administrative division of the country. A large diversity of agroclimatic and agronomical conditions creates the prerequisites for the inclusion of administrative regions into different SADs. The SADs concept implies a detailed analysis of information on the soil properties, geomorphic conditions, and farming conditions. The agronomic potential for major crops in the key SADs in the forest-steppe zone of the East European Plain (Voronezh and Penza oblasts) is high, though it is 25-30% lower than that in the North Caucasus (for winter wheat, sugar beet, sunflower, and spring barley) and in Kaliningrad oblast (for oats). In Western Siberia (Tyumen, Omsk, and Novosibirsk oblasts) and Eastern Siberia (Krasnoyarsk region and Irkutsk oblast), the agronomic potential of spring crops (wheat, barley, and oats) is only utilized by 35-45% in comparison with their European analogues. In the Far East with its monsoon climate and soil conditions (meadow podbels, brown forest soils), the crops characteristic of the European forest-steppe (soybean, rice, sugar beet) and the Trans-Ural forest-steppe (spring wheat) are cultivated. Their biological potential is utilized by only 50-60% in comparison with the European analogues. The materials of this study give us information on the degree of correspondence between the soilagroclimatic potential of the territory and the biological potential of cultivated crops. This is important in the context of improving the natural-agricultural zoning of Russia and its information support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]