The high-mountain Chuya depression (Gorny Altai) was studied in 2006–2008. New data on the diversity of soil components of
the soil cover in terms of the new Russian soil classification system have been obtained. Some relations of soil components
to biotic and abiotic components of high-mountain steppe terrestrial ecosystems have been revealed.
Key words soil formation - soil classification - arid soils - halogenesi
Original Russian Text © E.N. Smolentseva, 2009, published in Sibirskii Ekologicheskii Zhurnal, 2009, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 179–186.