Statue of the Russian geographer Vasily Vasili'evich Dokuchaev (1846-1903) at the Lomonosov Moscow State University in Moscow, Russia
Vasily Vasili'evich Dokuchaev (1846 – 1903) was a Russian geographer who is credited with laying the foundations of soil science. Vasily Vasil'evich Dokuchaev is commonly regarded as the father of pedology, the study of soils in its natural setting. He developed soil science in Russia, and was, perhaps the first person to make wide geographical investigations of different soil types. His great contribution to science was, literally, to "put soils on the map". He introduced the idea that geographical variations in soil type could be explained in relation not only to geological factors (parent material), but also to climatic and topographic factors, and the time available for pedogenesis (soil formation) to operate. Using these ideas as a basis, he created the first soil classification. His ideas were quickly taken up by a number of soil scientists, including Hans Jenny. He worked on soil science, and developed a classification scheme describing five factors for soil formation. He arrived at his theory after extensive field studies on Russian soils in 1883. His most famous work is Russian Chernozem (1883). Thanks to Dokuchaev's works a number of Russian soil terms are in the international soil science vocabulary (chernozem, podsol, gley, solonets). A crater on Mars is named in his honor.
Size: 5242px × 3493px
Location: Lomonosov Moscow State University, GSP-1, Leninskie Gory, Moscow, Russia, Eastern Europe, Europe
Photo credit: © DE ROCKER / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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