Soils of Mongolia

Ochirbat BATKHISHIG

Soil Science Society of Mongolia

Soil Department, Institute Geography

Mongolian Academy of Sciences

batkhishig@gmail.com

Bangkok 2015. 05.13

Topics

• Mongolian Soil resources

• Soil database development

• Soil conservation problems

Mongolia is Central Asian country, extra-continental climate conditions. Area 1 569 sq. km. Population 3.0 mln. Average elevation is 1580 meter a.s.l.

Precipitation about 200 - 300 mm in year South Gobi desert areas less than 100 mm

•January average air temperature -20o C •July average air temperature +20о С

Transition from Siberian taiga

to Steppe and Gobi desert

Forest 8%

Cultivated land 1%

Grazing land 74%

other 17%

Specific of soil properties of Mongolia

• High elevation of territory and sporadically distribution of

permafrost. More than 80% of territory of Mongolia is higher than

1000 m above sea level

• Domination of soil forming process in the minus temperature,

short biological active period, 3-5 month in year

• Mountain, Forest, Steppe and Desert soils presented

• Slow process of chemical weathering and clay formation

• Carbonate accumulation in the steppe soils

• Gypsum in the Gobi desert soils

• Stony soil profile and Organic accumulation layer

• Paleo-cryomorphic features in the soil profile

Soil geographical regions

Khangai region:

Steppe, Meadow and Forest soils

Gobi region: Desert-steppe and Desert soils

Forest-taiga soil

Central Khentei mountain

Kastanozem soil

Kastanozem soil

Gobi desert Brown soil

Mountain tundra 8%

Forest taiga soil 9%

Stony Chernozem 7%

Stony Dark Kastanozem

15%

Chernozem 1%

Dark Kastanozem 10%

Kastanozem 13%

Stony Gobi Brown 3%

Gobi Brown 14%

Desert Gypsic 11%

Salty soils 3%

Sand 2%

Peat cryomorphic 2%

Alluvial 2%

Soil resource of Mongolia

1.8

2.2

8.0

9.5

32.6

46.0

Peat cryomorphic

Alluvial

Mountain tundra

Forest taiga soil

Gobi desert soil

Steppe soil

Soil database of Mongolia

Soil map data Whole country scale 1 : 500 000, 1 : 1 000 000, 1 : 2 500 000, Central, north regions, scale 1 : 200 000, 1 : 100 000 Soil pedon data Hard copy (More than 10 000 soil profile data) Digital format Excel, Access Soil data (mostly in Mongolian and Russian lang.)

Soil map database of Mongolia

• Bespalov N D, Soil map of Mongolia, 1951. Scale 1 : 5 000 000

• Andreev S I, Soil of Buyant river delta area, 1936

• Land Authority Office data 1970-1980

– Soil map 1 : 500 000,

• Soil map of Mongolia, scale 1:2 500 000, 1980

• Soil map of Mongolia, scale 1 : 1 000 000. 1981

– Using air photos

Before 2000

After 2000

Most soil maps on hardcopy

Digital soil maps

Soil maps of different regions of Mongolia

Soil map of Mongolia, scale 1: 500 000, 2013. IG MAS

Converting existing soil maps to the digital format

Source data Soil maps of Mongolia , scale 1 : 1 000 000, 1981 Soil maps of Mongolia , scale 1 : 2 500 000, 1979 Soil map of different regions, scale 1 : 100 000, 1 : 200 000

Software ARC Map 10.1 ERDAS Imagine 9.2

SOIL MAPPING OF MONGOLIA

Compiling New soil maps in different regions of Mongolia

ArcGIS ArcMap 10.1 Soil mapping methods

Soil pedon data before 2000

• Morphological characteristics

• Soil horizon thickness

• General chemical properties – Organic content, pH, Calcium carbonate,

exchangeable Ca, Mg, texture

• No coordinate location

(example: west to soum center 10 km)

• Not data about water physical properties

– Only soil texture (Russian classification, Kachinskii)

– Not much data about soil stone gravel content • Soil fine material less than 1 mm (Russian)

• International standard is less than 2 mm.

Data available

Data lack

Mongolian soils divided by 2 parts

• Mountain soil

• Plain and intermountain valley soils

Distinguished 36 types

Soil classification of Mongolia

• Mongolia used geographical-genetical classification system, like Russian.

• Now renewing classification system

Soil degradation

Climate warming impact • Soil cover drying, compacting and, sealing

• Soil organic decay acceleration

• Surface runoff increase due of topsoil compaction and

sealing, furthermore linear erosion expanding, creating

gullies and channels

• Soil water capacity decrease

• Soil salting

Human impact

• Agriculture soil fertility loss

• Overgrazing

• Mining

• Road erosion

• Forest cut

Agriculture soil degradation

• Total 0,7 million hectare area not more used as a result of degradation.

• It is estimated that over the past 30 years about 35–50 tons of soil have been lost from each hectare of cultivated land due to wind erosion alone.

• 46.5% of arable land was degraded: 12.9% - strong, 28.2% - medium, 58.9 % slightly degraded.

•

Agriculture soil degradation

• Nearly 60% of total arable land or 0,7 million hectare area not more used as a result of degradation.

Strong, 12.9

Medium, 28.2

Sligthly, 58.9

Arable land degradation of Mongolia, (%)

46.5% of arable land was degraded:

Soil erodibility

Number of

samples

Average

humus

content

%

Decrease

percentage

comparing

with non

eroded soils

Non eroded

area

388

2.64

Slight

342

2.50

7.2

Moderate

195

2.08

21.3

Severe

88

1.60

39.4

Changes of soil erosion and humus content

Climate change

Last 70 years air temperature

increased by 2.10 C

(Ulaanbaatar)

Annual precipitation ranges

225.5-269.2 mm,

increased slightly by 10 mm

y = 0.0768x + 237.33

0.0

50.0

100.0

150.0

200.0

250.0

300.0

350.0

400.0

450.0

19

61

19

63

19

65

19

67

19

72

19

74

19

76

19

78

19

80

19

82

19

84

19

86

19

88

19

90

19

92

19

94

19

96

19

98

20

00

20

02

20

04

20

06

20

08

Precipitation, mm (UB station)

y = 0.0349x - 71.109

-4

-3

-2

-1

0

1

2

1958 1968 1978 1988 1998 2008

Air temperature, C (UB station)

•This is 2 - 3 times more than World

average

World is 0.6-0.7o C

Soil drying Accelerating organic decay Salinization increase Crusting, sealing Soil fertility loss

Wetland decline Biodiversity decreases

Permafrost melting

Most soil degraded and polluted area

is Central Mongolia, where more

human impact

Soil erosion risk map

700 thousand km2 area occupied by arid land or Gobi desert

vulnerable for soil degradation

Human impact on soil

Forest cut

Mining

Road erosion

Overgrazing

Recent Activities

• In 2003 started Land privatization of Mongolia. Soil resource becoming valuable and important.

• In 2010 Ministry of Environment of Mongolia adopted regulatory document “Soil economic-ecological assessment”

• In 2012 Mongolian parliament adopted law ”Soil conservation and Combating desertification”

• 2012-2014 Land authority department of Mongolia implemented project activities to convert hard copy soil maps of Mongolia 1:100 000, 1:200 000 scale (made in 1970-80) to the digital formats.

• 2011-2013 Soil Science Department of Mongolian Academy of Sciences implemented project “Digital soil mapping and Renewing of Soil classification system”

• Soil survey Small projects in different regions of Mongolia related to the mining and road construction activities.

Conclusions

• Soil database development is challenging issue

• GIS based database system

• Processing of legacy dates

• Digital soil mapping methodology

• Soil classification renewing

• Soil conservation problem

Thank your

for attention