Examples of our services:

Conservation management of species-rich meadows

Soil monitoring

Restoring species-rich grasslands

Heathland restoration

Soil assessment

Restoration of wet grasslands

Monitoring acid grassland

Research on hedgerows

Environmental mitigation

Sustainable weed control

Research on rare soils

    Soil-forming conditions:

• Humid moderately-cold climate;
• Outcrops of Lower Permian gypsum;
• Karst topography;
• Oligotrophic open-wood communities atypical for the northern taiga; diversity of habitats with rare and endangered plants, including gypsophyte and arctic-alpine species.

 
Gypsum rock in the taiga landscape.                  Taking samples of sulphorendzina.

Plants on sulphorendzinas (from left to right): gypsophyte Gypsophila uralensis, arctic-alpine species Dryas punctata, insectivorous plant Pinguicula vulgaris and orchid Calypso bulbosa.

The prevalence of gypsum amongst parent rocks causes oligotrophization of taiga communities and appearance of open woodlands. Sulpho-rendzinas i.e. soils that are formed directly on gypsum dominate in the soil cover (examples of their profiles are shown below). Their neighbours are peat soils at the bottom of sinkholes and soils on glacial deposits underlain by gypsum.

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 laboratory analyses - findings - world occurrence