Methodological analysis of the conceptual framework in soil ecology

Abstract

A methodological analysis is carried out and the reasons for the limited applicability in solving a number of problems in soil ecology of traditional climatic hydrothermal coefficients — the radiation index of Budyko dryness and the Vysotsky-Ivanov wetting coefficient — are clarified. Based on the analysis of the dimension applied to the problem of the dependence of the nature of the soil cover on hydrothermal conditions, new concepts are introduced - dimensionless similarity criteria, which play the role of soil-climate coefficients, which have a wider range of epistemological accuracy compared to traditional ones. It is shown that the relationship between traditional climatic and new soil-climatic hydrothermal coefficients is asymptotic. Using the empirical equation of M. I. Budyko for evaporation of soil moisture and soil-climatic coefficients, a new physico-theoretical approach is developed and the equation of "soil-climatic characteristics" (PCC) is taken into account, taking into account the combined influence of climatic properties (through long-term average the values ​​of the radiation balance R and precipitation P) and the properties of the soil substrate (through the evaporation of soil moisture E (R, P)) on the features of the soil formation process. It is shown that, in contrast to the traditional approach, which organizes soil properties on an empirical climatic basis, the new approach has the ability to theoretically predict a number of soil patterns, in particular, grouping soils into arid, humid, and balanced pedocosms.