Being a mountainous country with dry climatic conditions, Armenia is in practice vulnerable to the global climate changes. According to the World Bank, Armenia is one of the countries being sensitive to the climate change. The rise in temperature and the reduction of precipitation contribute to the acceleration of the processes of desertification, which is negatively reflected primarily on the production of agriculture. The results of the research show that during the recent ten years a significant temperature increase has been observed in the republic, during the period from 1935-2012 the average annual temperature rose by 1.03⁰C. The comparison of the estimates of changes in the amount of precipitation for different periods shows that the tendency of precipitation reduction has been also preserved. During the period from 1935 to 2012, the average amount of annual precipitation reduced by 10 %. Complex geological structure, dissected relief, the diversity of soil-forming rocks, as well as various hydrothermal conditions contributed not only to the multiplicity of the vegetation cover and climate, but also to the formation of the variegated soil cover of the Republic of Armenia. A detailed study of the soil cover of the republic made it possible to identify many genetic types, subtypes and genera of soils in the territory of Armenia. At the present stage, there is a need to make a new grouping of all the genetic soil types of the republic on the basis of the World Reference Base for Soil Resources, which is literally translated as the “Мировая Реферативная База Данных для Почвенных Ресурсов” or, briefly, the World Soil Reference Base, with the widely used corresponding abbreviation WRB [1]. A brief description of all the types of soils has been given, as well as those negative changes that occur during the long-term unsystematic agricultural use of soils under the conditions of the global climate change have been presented.

The Republic of Armenia is a small mountainous country with vividly expressed vertical zoning and scarce in soil, where among all the components of the landscape soil cover is also exposed to zoning patterns typical of mountainous countries. In the article is analyzed the compliance of the classification of genetic subtypes of the soil of the republic with international criteria. The classification of all genetic soil types and subtypes separated in the territory of the republic is based on the criteria presented in International World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB).

Features of formation and the structure of a soil cover, regularity of distribution and properties of soils in the Northern part of the Aral Sea region, differing in the nature of soil formation are considered. Allocation is carried out and the description of soil combinations is given. On the example of the North desert hollow-remnant plateau the structure of a soil cover is defined, a variety of the soils which gained the prevailing distribution is shown. Factors of anthropogenic impact on the desert soils connected with a pasturable digression and actions for improvement of pasturable lands are studied, the processes arising in soils at a repasture are revealed and use of agrotechnical receptions. Results of studies of the soils with signs of transformation which are formed in the conditions of change of a vegetable cover and violation of a soil profile are stated. Degree and the nature of anthropogenically caused violations of soils were defined by a complex of morphogenetic signs and properties of soils. Comparative analysis revealed differences between the humus horizons of the broken and undisturbed objects of a research. Changes are in limits of the specific distinctions determined by the thickness of the humus horizon, its structure and addition, the maintenance of the main chemical indicators.

The humus state and its features in the alluvial-floodplain soils of the Leftbank Forest-Steppe in Ukraine were revealed. The nature of humus of the floodplain soils was characterized. The distribution of humus along the soil profile was shown doesn't have the trend to decrease via depth because of soil banding. It was revealed that the most part of the group composition of humus (32-62 %) is insoluble residue - humin; in the extracted humus substances the quantity of humic acids is more than fulvic ones thus soils have fulvic-humic or pure humic type of humus. The qualitative composition of humus and its features in the alluvial-floodplain soils were determined, such as: high content of humic acids, connected with calcium - 9-24 %, in comparison with zonal chernozem soil increased content of the stable connected fraction of humic acids -HA-3 (10-15 %) and high humus nitrogen density.

The article presents the results of a study of the effect of treated dacitic tuff on the agrochemical properties of irrigated (rice) marsh soils and the yield of rice. Under the conditions of field vegetative experience, the weight gain of grains to the control (pure soil) of the effect of ODT varies depending on the dose from 3.1 to 4.0 g/vessel or 45.6 % to 58.8 %, and compared to the background increase also, depending on the dose of ODT, was from 1.3 to 2.2 g/vessel or from 15 % to 25.6 %. Moreover, the magnitude of the increase in dose of ODT is nonlinear. The most effective dose of ODT was 0.2 mg/kg of soil, the doses below and above the surplus were inferior to this option. Similar increases were obtained with respect to the mass of straw and roots. All tested doses of OTD also had a positive effect on the mass of straw and roots. The most effective was also the dose of OTD 0.2 mg/kg of soil.

On the basis of observing the work with closed drainage area of 6.000 hectares of drained analyzes the work of drainage ditches on the challengel p.chanes reguire the regulation of runoff and ground water levels. The magnitude of the flow module in the farm varies from 0,02 -0,04 to 0,10-0,20 l/sec in places and reaches 0,16-0,22 l/sec in places. At the stationary sites during the agricultural development under cotton, alfalfa and winter crops, the maximum drainage flow modules were 0,14-0,16, 0,24-0,30 and 0,371 l/sec resrectively, and correspond to the desigh values. The intensity of the decline of the groundwater level to a critical depth (2m) is 4,0-7,0 sm/day. Some results were reported about the washing of the salinized soils against the background of drainage.

The problem of soil contamination with oil and oil products, as well as the search for ways to restore the ecological state of disturbed lands is a pressing problem all over the world. It is known that among the existing methods of eliminating oil contamination of soil, biological techniques including bio- and phytoremediation are the most effective. The purpose of this work was to study the total number of microflora and enzymatic activity of the soils of the Kara-Arna oil field in the post-recultivation period. As a result of the research, the main physiological groups of microorganisms were studied. The prevalence of ammonifying bacteria over actinomycetes and microscopic fungi was noted. It was revealed that in general, the number of microflora decreases depending on the time of remediation: 2011 y. <2012 y. <2013 y. <2014 y. The greatest activity of microflora is observed in the early years of remedial measures. The genera of microscopic fungi were established: Penicillium, Aspergillus, Mucor, Fusarium. The indicators of enzymatic activity of the soil (urease, dehydrogenase, catalase) after reclamation works were studied. As a result, a decrease in the intensity of redox enzymatic processes was observed. The possibility of using enzymatic activity to diagnose the state of soil contamination is considered.

The work is devoted to the study of the content of heavy metals in soils at the crossroads of the main streets of Almaty. It was found that the content of mobile zinc in soil in the vicinity of the Ryskulov-Seifullin streets exceeded maximum of 50 %. In soil samples taken near Raiymbek -Seifullin and Abay-Seifullin, the content of this form of zinc corresponds to the MAC or has a value close to the MPC. The number of mobile forms of copper in soils taken near the Kazakh National University. al-Farabi is equal to MPC or is close to MPC. The concentration of lead in soil samples taken near Ryskulov-Seifullin and Raiymbek-Seifullin reached values close to MPC. At the same time, this figure at the intersection of Raiymbek-Seifullin streets was equal to the MPC or had a value close to it. MPC of gross zinc is 100 mg/kg, and in the area of Ryskulov-Seifullin streets its content in the soil was 290.0 mg/kg, which is 2 times higher than MPC. In soil samples taken near the streets of Raiymbek-Seifullin, this figure was 156.8 mg/kg, which exceeds the MPC by 56.8 mg/kg.the content of the gross form of copper in soils taken near Kazgugrad is MPC.