SOLONCHARS FORMED ON THE DRY BOTTOM OF THE ARAL SEA
The article deals with the issues of the soil cover, formed soils, as a result of the retreat of the Aral Sea since the 1950s. The studied areas have a different composition of salts in the soil profile; as a result of the precipitation of soda, chlorine and sulfates, solonchaks were formed in the upper layers, and these chemical compounds adversely affect the development of plants. Species of non-salt-loving plants growing in nature are gradually changing and being replaced by halophytes belonging to different families of “salt-loving” plants, and a plant formation is gradually formed that belongs to the salt-loving family of a morphological and anatomical peculiar species. It is noted that these halophytic plants grow well even on typical saline soils with a total salt content of 5-8 %, and sometimes their salts up to 15-20 %. In the dry part of the Aral Sea, a complex of sandy-desert, hydromorphic and semi-hydromorphic sandy-desert soils, residual coastal solonchaks, semi-automorphic and semi-hydromorphic solonchaks, as well as sandy-desert and sandy solonchaks were formed. As a result of a decrease in groundwater, the hydromorphic soils of the study area are currently turning into automorphic soils. The litological section of soil-forming rocks consists of complex layered-silty alluvial rocks of the Amu Darya and have a very diverse structure. The layers of alluvial coatings throughout the territory are characterized by their mechanical composition, as well as their sharp changes throughout the entire area. Constant rapid variability of the soil formation process together with groundwater and a constant flow of rapid salt accumulation prevents the formation of a normal soil profile.