Soil organic matter of the Altai mountainous landscapes (case study of the Tigireksky nature reserve)

The ratio of different fractions of soil organic matter is seen as an indicator of the level of biological activity and could be used to assess the ability of soil to accumulate stable organic compounds, including the deposition of atmospheric carbon. The territory of the Tigirek reserve is an example of the vertical landscape structure invariant free of the past and present anthropogenic pressure. So, it is possible to reveal the features of accumulation of organic carbon of various oxidation states, which characterizes the ratio of labile and stable C pools of soil organic matter. It is shown that organic compounds in soils of mountain-steppe, subalpine and alpine belts are characterized by a higher proportion of moderately oxidized compounds (>28%) due to the predominance of herbaceous species in plant communities with a high content of cellulose and amino sugars in the litter. The soils of mountain-taiga landscapes are characterized by a higher proportion of hard-to-oxidize compounds (up to 60%) in comparison with the soils of mountain-steppe (up to 55%), alpine and subalpine belts (up to 27%), due to the predominance of tree species in plant communities with significantly higher lignin content in the litter. The share of hard-to-oxidize compounds in mountain-steppe and mountain-taiga soils increases with depth. At the same time, an increase in the proportion of difficult-to-oxidize compounds in mountain taiga soils is due to decreasing proportion of moderately oxidizable compounds (from 32 ± 9.1 to 25 ± 7.9%) with a relatively stable proportion of easily oxidized ones (about 23%). The opposite tendency is observed in mountain-steppe soils: a decrease in the proportion of easily oxidized fraction (from 26 ± 4.5 to 17 ± 4.3) against the background of a relatively stable proportion of moderately oxidized one (about 41%). The soils of alpine and subalpine landscapes are characterized by a stable ratio of easily (15–25%), medium (47–60%) and hardly oxidizable (19–31%) compounds of organic matter within the soil profile, due to low thickness of the soil profile and reduced microbial activity under acidic environment and unfavorable climatic conditions.

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