Vitaly Andriyanovich Kuzmin - researcher of soils of the Baikal region (to the 95th anniversary of his birth)
I.A. BELOZERTSEVA, N.V. VLASOVA
V.B. Sochava Institute of Geography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Irkutsk, Russia
Keywords: soils, geography, mapping, geochemistry, depressions of the Baikal Rift Zone, Mongolia
Abstract
The article considers the life and creative work of Honorary Member of the V.V. Dokuchaev Soil Science Society, Doctor of Biological Sciences V.A. Kuzmin, a leading specialist in soil geography, who headed the Irkutsk Branch of the V.V. Dokuchaev Soil Science Society for over 30 years and worked at the V.B. Sochava Institute of Geography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Institute of Geography of Siberia and the Far East of the USSR Academy of Sciences) for over 50 years. The main results of his research on the soils of Central and Eastern Siberia are presented from the very beginning of his scientific career at the Faculty of Biology and Soil Science (formerly the Faculty of Geology, Soil Science, and Geography) of Irkutsk State University and in the Soil Science Laboratory of the East Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The article examines a wide range of issues of his scientific work: the history of soil development, the features of their development on various rocks, soil-geographical mapping, humus composition, soil cryogenesis, the features of mountain soil formation, water and temperature regimes, ecological functions and chemical composition of soils, as well as other landscape components. It presents the scientist’s first field soil studies in remote, almost inaccessible mountain areas of the Baikal region and Northern Mongolia, as well as the results of 50 years of soil-geographical and soil-geochemical research in various regions of Siberia, summarized in personal monographs. The main scientific achievements of V.A. Kuzmin are outlined, including the results of the study of the evolution of natural conditions and soils within these territories during the Holocene. The article lists his many soil maps of individual regions of southern Eastern Siberia (Irkutsk oblast, Western and Northern Pribaikalie, the Irkutsk-Cheremkhovo Plain, the Goloustnaya River basin, the Lake Baikal basin within the Russian Federation, and others), in the compilation of which he was one of the first to use space data, improving soil mapping techniques. The central motivation behind V.A. Kuzmin’s work is revealed, i.e. his concern for the rational use of Eastern Siberia’s land resources, the protection of its unique beauty, and the careful management of the Lake Baikal basin’s resources.
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