Agrolandscape-ecological zoning of natural forage lands in Russian regions

Agrolandscape and ecological zoning of natural forage lands (NFL) has been developed at the Williams Federal Research Center of Forage Production & Agroecology for the information support of regionally, landscape and ecologically differentiated agriculture, rational nature management, preservation of soil fertility, and increase of productivity and sustainability of agroecosystems and agrolandscapes. The zoning covers 11 natural and economic (economic) regions of the country, i. e. Northern, Northwestern, Volga-Vyatka, Central, Central Chernozem, Volga Region, North Caucasian, Urals, West Siberian, East Siberian, Far Eastern. The set of documents for agro-landscape and ecological zoning of the NFL for each natural and economic region of Russia includes the following materials: map M 1:2 500 000, legend, database on lands, database on forage lands, database on negative processes, classification of forage lands, classification of deer pastures, strategy and promising ways of agricultural nature management. The NFL zoning was developed on the basis of the Map of Soil and Ecological Zoning of the Russian Federation M 1:2 500 000 elaborated at the MSU Faculty of Soil Science, which is used as a contour and information basis. Numerous cartographic and statistical data, and available literary and stock sources were used for the zoning, which was based on comparative geographical and agro-landscape-ecological methods. The agro-landscape and ecological zoning of the NFL provides zonal, regional, landscape and ecological adaptation and specialization for the development of agriculture, which allows using local natural resources with the greatest efficiency and minimizing the development of negative processes. The databases of the soil-ecological zoning map have been supplemented with new information and indicators characterizing the state of landscapes and their components, such as climate, relief, hydrological regime, soils, vegetation, NFL, the development of negative processes, ecological and economic conditions. This is a significant contribution to the inventory of lands and fodder lands, nature management and protection of agroecosystems and agricultural landscapes. In the future, it is advisable to combine materials and databases of the soil-ecological zoning of the Russian Federation and the agro-landscape-ecological zoning of NFL of different regions of the Russian Federation, created on a single basis, to assess and monitor the state of agrolandscapes, soils and forage lands, and take administrative decisions on nature management in agriculture.