Home – Home – Jornals – Contemporary Problems of Ecology 2012 number 5

On the basis of generalization of the available results of the investigation into the traits and properties of chernozem in the Kuznetsk depression (Kuznetsk chernozem), it is concluded that these soils are the "gold fund" of the croplands of the Kuznetsk Basin: they served and now serve as irreplaceable basis for grain crop production in this most highly developed industrial region of West Siberia. However, in spite of the high anthropospheric significance, they are subjected to increasing erosion-deflationary destruction because even the simplest soil-protecting measures are not kept when using these soils as croplands. In addition, they are uncontrolledly assigned for open (quarrying) coal production, while the major coal resources are situated within the Kuznetsk depression, where the soil prevailing in soil cover is chernozem, arable soil of the best quality. In order to conserve Kuznetsk chernozem, compulsory tight control over the reasonability of its assignment for coal-producing industry is necessary.