Scientists are creating a soil image bank of Western Siberia
The staff of the TSU laboratory Bio-Geo-Clim is creating an image bank that will include all the main soil types represented in the latitudinal profile of Western Siberia, from steppes to tundra. A new information base will help researchers reconstruct past ecosystem changes in the macroregion and predict future soil transformations.
- The project will evaluate and systematize a variety of morphons — elements of the soil structure that are indicators of soil processes - says Sergey Loyko, project manager, a senior researcher at Bio-Geo-Clim. - Digital photographic equipment and microscopy have significantly improved morphological analysis. Thanks to the digitalizing, in the last 5–10 years, morphology has gone from primitive eyeballing to exact divisions of soil science. Finally, the morphological appearance of soils is conveyed not by words, but by accurate images with high resolution and realistic colors, which helps to apply statistical methods of data analysis to soils.
Read more: http://en.tsu.ru/news/scientists-are-creating-a-soil-image-bank-of-western-siberia/
