Soil Environment of the Russian Arctic.

Russian Arctic soil environment occupy huge area, where principle soil-forming factors such as climates, relief, geological substrata and vegetation vary greatly. It results in a considerable diversity of Russian soils in zone with permafrost.

The predominant feature of High Arctic archipelagos is outcrops of barren substrates, mainly cobbly and rocky ones. The most common soils here are Lithic Gelorthents on cobbly parent material and Typic Haploturbels on loams.  Oxyaquic Haploturbels can be widely met in the hollows of running melting water. Lithic Haplogelolls take place on calcareous materials if there is the influence of avifauna.

Mid Arctic in Russia is characterized by discontinuous soil cover, patterned ground, appearance of Histels. Different Aquiturbels are the dominant soils here. However, Spodic Psammoturbels are widespread on sandy materials as well as Lithic Gelorthents in shallow mountainous substrates. Fibristels and Histoturbels are common soils for overmoistening areas.

Low Arctic and Subarctic of Russian plain territories are mostly characterized by continuous soil cover with both permafrost-affected soils and those without permafrost by with pronounced cryoturbations caused by seasonal freezing. Turbic Haplogelods are common soils for Kola Peninsula (North-West of Russia), however Ruptic-Histic Aquiturbels and Histoturbels  are predominant soils of Subarctic plains. Fibristels are also common for this zone.

In mountainous regions of East Russia permafrost-affected soils go southward and reach the southern border of the country in the territory with strong continental features. The criteria of most soil classification systems, including Soil Taxonomy, are developed for regions with a climate lacking strong continental features, where a cold and usually humid summer corresponds to a cold winter. However, the soils of East Siberia show that permafrost has a significant effect when thaws deeper than 2 m. This fact should be taken into consideration for environmental modeling in cold regions.