Vasily Vasil'evich Dokuchaev is commonly regarded as the father of soil science, 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, figuratively, 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, but also to climatic and topographic factors, and the time available for pedogenesis 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. Thanks to Dokuchaev's works a number of Russian soil terms are in the international soil science vocabulary. A crater on Mars is named in his honor and the Dokuchaev Award, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in the field of Soil Science, was instituted by the International Union of Soil Sciences.
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Authored works
Dokuchaev published in 1869-1901: 285 works, including 61 books and 4 maps. ;List of publications :
Dokoutchaief B. 1879. Tchernozème de la Russie d'Europe. St.-Ptb.: Soc. imp. libre économ. 66 p..
Inostrantzev A., Schmidt Th., Moeller V., Karpinsky A., Dokoutchaief B. et al. 1882. Rapport de la Sous-commission russe sur l’uniformité de la nomenclature géologique // Congrès géologique international. 2-me session. Bologne. 1881: Compte rendu. Bologne: Fava et Garagnani. P. 529-534.
Dokoutchaief B. B. 1892. Les steppes russes autrefois et aujurd’hui // Congrès international d'archéologie, préhistorique et d'antroppologie. 11 ses. Moscou. 1892. T. 1. Мoscou: impr. universite, T. 1. P. 197-240; Our Steppes Before and Nowadays. St.-Ptb.: Dept. Agriculture Ministry of Crown Domains for the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago, 1893. 62 p.
Dokoutchaief B. B. 1892. Notes sur l’étude scientifique du sol en Russie au point de vue de l’agronomie et de la cartographie agricole // Bull. Soc. Belge géol., paleontol., hydrol. 1891/1892. Vol. 4. P. 113-115.
Dokouchaev V. V. 1893. Notes sur le loess // Bull. Soc. Belge géol., paleontol., hydrol. 1892/1893. Vol. 6. P. 92-101.
Dokouchaev V. V. Sibirtzev N. M. 1893. Short scientific review of professor Dockuchaev’s and his pupil’s collection of soils, exposed in Chicago in the year 1893. St.-Ptb.: impr. Evdokimov. 40 p.
Dokoutchaief B. B. 1895. Le Court contenu des Travaux de l’expédition, équipée par Departement forestier sous la direction prof. Dokoutschaeff. St.-Ptb.: impr. Evdokimov. 28 p.
Docoutschaev V. V. 1897. Collection des sols du professeur Docoutschaev et de ses eleves, exposee au Musee mineralogique de l’Universite a St-Petersbourg: . St.-Ptb.: impr. Evdokimov 17 p.
Dokoutschaeff В. B. 1900. Collection pédologique: Zones verticales des sols. Zones agricoles. Sols du Caucase. St.-Ptb.: Ministére des finances. 56 p. : сarte.
