Concerning the Soils of Mediterranean Open Forests in the Krasnodar Region

Thin gray-colored calcareous soils without definite indices of soil weathering have been investigated under open Mediterranean forests in the Navazhir Ridge stretching from Anapa to Novorossisk in the Krasnodar region. These soils (xeromorphic brown forest soils) develop from flysch rocks without presoil argillization and reddening (red earth formation). They are quite common in the Mediterranean region and also in semihumid foothills and semiarid forest environments of the eastern Transcaucasus. In the foreign literature, they are often erroneously attributed to the group of cinnamonic soils. It is argued that the properties of the min-eral soil mass and the biological peculiarities of xeromorphic brown forest soils are similar to those of sierozemic soils. Therefore, it would be reasonable to classify them as forest sierozems.