Saturday, 15 July 2006
173-2

The main moments in the development of soil classification in Romania.

Ioan M. Munteanu, RISSA - Research Institute of Soil Science and Agrochemistry, 61, Marasti blvd., Bucharest, 012356, Bucharest, Romania

The beginning of soil classification in Romania goes back to the first decade of XXth century and is owed to G. M. Murgoci (1872-1925), an eminent scholar, geologist and soil scientist, the founder of modern soil science in this country. Historically three moments mark the long-way of Romanian soil classification development. - The genetico-geographical moment (1911), when the soils were classified (by Murgoci) on the basis of the genetico-geographical principle conceived by the Russian School of Dokuchaev and his disciples. This principle holds that the genetical properties of soils are strongly related on the geographical environment and the basic unit of every classification should be the genetical soil type named accordingly. The legend of the first Soil Map of Romania (1911), made using this principle, may be considered also, as the first Romanian scientific soil classification. It comprises 16 units (soil types and soil associations), mostly named according to Russian nomenclature: chestnut soil, chernozem, podzol, but also preserves most of the Romanian one, e.g. reddish brown soil, lacovishte (humic gley soil), plaur (floating organic soil). The genetico-geographical approach dominated soil classification in Romania until the 7th decade of XXth century. Meanwhile several attempts at soil classification had been made: Chirita -1955 issued a classification based on biological factors, Florea (1964) reunited the soil types in soil classes (zonal and intrazonal), Cernescu & Florea (1962) worked out a systematic soil list with the aim to be used in soil survey. - Morphogenetic moment (1969) – this approach was conceived to replace the genetico-geographical classification which proved to generate much confusion. This new system used as classification criteria the genetic (morphogenetic) soil characteristics – mainly genetic soil horizons. It was developed only at higher level categories – class, subclass, genetical soil type and genetical soil subtype. The morphogenetic system was a short-live one. The soil surveys were further carried out in the basis of systematic soil list (1962). - Morfodiagnostic (quantitative or morphometric) moment,– This classification approach has been introduced in Romania as the consequence of the strong impact of the newly emerged world-wide systems of soil classification, mainly the USDA Soil Taxonomy and the FAO-UNESCO Legend of the World Soil Map. The first attempt was the Soil Classification System (1973) that used the principle of diagnostic horizons promoted by the USDA 7th Approximation and the FAO-UNESCO Legend. The taxa were defined in terms of diagnostic soil horizons and soil horizons sequence. The second attempt (1980) was marked by publication of the "Romanian System of the Soil Classification" (RSSC), that like the previous one is based on diagnostic horizons, properties and attributes as used in the USDA Soil Taxonomy (1975) and the FAO-UNESCO Legend (1974). This system was used for more than 20 years, until 2004 when it was replaced by the "Romanian System of Soil Taxonomy" (RSST). This is the latest version of soil classification in Romania. It is alligned mostly to the World Soil Reference Base as concerns nomenclature, diagnostic horizons, properties and diagnostic materials. Like all other previous Romanian soil classifications, RSST has a pyramidal-hierarchical structure: class (12), genetical soil type (32), genetical soil subtype (270). In order to enforce its practical side, priority at lower levels has been given to soil species (texture) instead of soil family (nature of soil parent material) as in RSSC.

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