ИСТИНА

The study is aimed at the ecological analysis of the temperature regimes of soils of the East European Plain (within the borders of the Russian Federation). Methods of GIS-analysis and geostatistics were applied for revealing the relationships between the temperature regimes of soils and vegetation boundaries. The results of this analysis, as well as the summary of published data on the effect of soil temperature on plants’ root systems, biological and biochemical processes in soils, formed the basis for determining the criteria for the assessment of environmental conditions for vegetation growth considering the soils’ temperature. Seasonal distribution of temperatures in the soil cover of the East European Plain at different depths (20 to 320 cm), as well as the particularities of soils’ intraprofile temperature regimes in different ecosystems were analyzed. The authors proposed the new classification of temperature regimes of the East European Plant soils that took into account the ratio of the environmentally sufficient (5-10°C) and environmentally active (>10°C) temperatures at different depths during the vegetation period, the depth of penetration of active temperatures, as well as the number of climatic averages that characterize environmental conditions for ecosystems’ functioning. Zoning of the East European Plain (within the borders of the Russian Federation) on environmental pedo-thermal conditions has been performed.