Annals of Agrarian Science 15 (2017) 380e385

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Annals of Agrarian Science

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The influence of organic matter on soil color using the regression

equations of optical parameters in the system CIE-L*a*b*
Yu.N. Vodyanitskii a, *, A.T. Savichev b, c
a
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Faculty of Soil Science, 1, Leninskiye Gory, Moscow, 119991, Russian Federation
b
Geological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, 7, Pyzhevskii Per., Moscow, 119017, Russian Federation
c
Dokuchaev Soil Science Institute, 7, Pyzhevskii Per., Moscow, 119017, Russian Federation

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Presenting soil color as a colors sum of two phases: mineral matrix and an organic material, in soil
Received 19 March 2017 sample we can determine color indicators of mineral phase from univariate regression equations: Corg ¼ f
Accepted 2 May 2017 (L *), Corg ¼ f (a *) and Corg ¼ f (b *) provided Corg ¼ 0. Influence of organic matter is not limited by
Available online 26 July 2017
neutralization of a lightness of white pigments, for example, on quartz and carbonates, organic matter
cover by film the particles of red, yellow and green pigments, it also neutralizes the effect of these
Keywords:
pigments in the soil color. From univariate regression equations Corg ¼ f (L *) we calculated the value of
Organic matter of soils
pigmentic ability of organic matter in relation to the white pigments. To determine more accurately the
Soil color
Optical system CIE-L*a*b*
organic matter content on soil color we should use three indicators instead of one variable in the
Mineral matrix of soils regression equation: each of the color parameters in CIE-Lab system separately. Three-factor regression
equations allowed to calculate more precisely the Corg--content in the soils of two of the three Cis-Urals
Catenas and Kolyma cryosols.
© 2017 Agricultural University of Georgia. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access
article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Introduction coordinates [6,8,9]. In this system, L * is the lightness, a * is the

Basic soil pigments are: organic matter, coloring soil in dark
color; quartz aSiO2, calcite CaCO3 and other carbonates, coloring in
white color, hematite aFe2O3 (red), goethite aFeOON (yellow)
[1e4].
Organic matter is the most important pigment, that colors the
ground in black color. In recent years, soils are contaminated by
organic pollutants [5] that exacerbate the soil blackness.
Reliable identification of organic matter role in soil color, only
possible if the optical characteristics of the soil are expressed in
convenient units. In Russia and in the world the most common
system among soil scientists is the Munsell system [6,7]. In this
system, color is characterized by three parameters: H (Hue) - hue, V
(Value) - lightness and Cr (Croma) - color saturation [3,8]. The
peculiarity of this system is the cylindrical coordinates, hampering
statistical calculations.
In 1976, the International Optical Committee has developed a
system CIE-L * a * b *, which is a universal color space in Cartesian
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: yu.vodyan@mail.ru (Yu.N. Vodyanitskii).
Peer review under responsibility of Journal Annals of Agrarian Science.
redness and b * is the yellowness of object, expressed in dimen-
sionless values. System CIE-L * a * b * is widely used to characterize
color under spectrometric analysis, as well as to assess the contri-
bution of the pigments [1,2,10,11,12]. With the help of CIE-L * a * b *
system it is convenient to establish numerically a connection be-
tween the color of the soil and contents of pigmenting substances.
Statistical approach is widely used to establish a connection
between the color of soil and content of organic matter [12e17].
The inverse problem is solved on the basis of regression equations:
to replace the expensive and painstaking determination of organic
carbon by simple and quick determination of soil color.
In most cases, the effect of organic matter on the color,
expressed in Munsell system, was studied. For example, in studied
soils of India, organic matter content with lightness V has corre-
lation coefficient r ¼ 0.69 [15]. The connection of organic matter
with the lightness of soils strongly depends on the particle size
distribution for the studied samples with correlation coefficient
r ¼ 0.55 [17]. The obtained correlation coefficient r is equal
to 0.79 for sandy soils [16]. The correlation coefficient increases,
using logarithms of arguments: log (V) and log (Cr), then the r-value
increases to 0.79 ÷ 0.88 [16].
In general, darker soils are more humus than light ones. Organic

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 Yu.N. Vodyanitskii, A.T. Savichev / Annals of Agrarian Science 15 (2017) 380e385
matter influences the soil color, due to the formation of organic-
mineral complexes. The degree of soil darkening also depends on
the composition of humus acids [17].
The statistical relationships of organic matter with the soil color
indexes were studied in Ref. [7], indexes were expressed in
different systems on the example of 180 soil samples from
Australia, France, Canada. The choice of the optical system is
important. Thus, the correlation coefficient Corg ~ V (in Munsell
system) is equal only to 0.59, whereas the correlation coefficient
Corg ~ L* (in the CIE-Lab system) reaches - 0.74. Similarly, the cor-
relation coefficient Corg ~ Cr (chroma in Munsell system) is equal
only to 0.45, whereas the correlation coefficient Corg ~ b* (yel-
lowness in the CIE-Lab system) reaches 0.65. This comparison
clearly shows greater efficiency CIE-Lab optical system compared to
Munsell system.
The most common, soil scientists used single-factor regression
equations: dependence of lightness L * on the soil organic matter
content [8,13,14,18]. But the use of single-factor regression equa-
tions is not sufficient: it was found high dispersion of L-value,
which reduces the accuracy of the calculation of the organic matter
content in soils. High dispersion indicates, that the influence factor
is not taken into account [8,12,13]. Such a factor may be the influ-
ence of organic matter on the other color pigments: yellow, blue,
red or green.
An account of all the three colors characteristics is necessary:
organic carbon content affects not only the lightness L *, but also on
the redness a * and yellowness b * of soils. . Most often, the effect of
organic matter (Corg) are considered using univariate regression
analysis. Although correlation coefficients Corg ~ a * and Corg ~ b * is
lower than Corg ~ L *, but still they sometimes reach significant
levels [7].
This is shown by the example of the correlation coefficients Corg
with three indicators of soil colors [8]. Significant negative corre-
lation coefficients Corg ~ a * and Corg ~ b * were derived for all soils.
This means, that the humus reduces redness and yellowness of
these soils, partially neutralizing the effect of yellow and red
pigments.
Since the single-factor dependences L *, a * and b * from the Corg-
content reflect the influence of the organic matter on the mineral
pigments (white, red, green, yellow, blue), it is possible to exclude
the influence of organic matter, accepting Corg ¼ 0, and to receive
color indicators of mineral soil matrix without humus. The differ-
ence of light indicators (DL*, Da* and Db*) will give the value of the
corresponding changes in soil color, due to the influence of organic
matter.
In addition, by analyzing univariate equation Corg ¼ f (L), you can
get information about the pigmenting ability of organic matter. The
organic matter in different soils has different colors. It is known
that humates are much blacker than fulvates [19]. In the result, 1%
of humate humus reduces soil lightness L greater than 1% of humus
fulvate [12]. In other words, the pigmenting ability of humate hu-
mus is higher than fulvate one. The characterization of humus
blackness we obtain, normalizing the lightness increment DL*on
the average Corg-content in each sample set. This ratio is called as
coefficient of “pigmenting ability of organic matter” Kpaom. Kpaom-
factor for our soil, as it will be shown below, varies in a wide range:
from 5 to 12.5 (% 1). Based on these data, let us divide the values of
pigmenting ability into two groups: soils with low pigmenting
ability of organic matter - Kpaom <8 and soils with high pigmenting
ability of organic matter - Kpaom > 8.
We emphasize, that the information about the pigmenting
ability of organic matter and its effect on mineral pigments, we get
from non-destructive analysis of soil samples, which is an advan-
tage of the statistical method.
There remains the problem of accurate Corg-calculating, based
381
on soil color. It is obvious that its solution requires simultaneous
consideration of all three components of the soil color: L*, a* and b*.
The easiest way, in terms of statistics, is to perform the calculation
according to Corg ¼ f (L* þ a* þ b*), allowing to use “Excel” software.
An attempt was made [8] to strengthen the statistical relationship
between organic carbon content and soil color. The authors
analyzed the color in an optical system CIE-L*u*v*; this system is
similar to the optical system CIE-L*a*b*, where u* and v* charac-
terized redness and yellowness, although they are calculated in a
different algorithm than a* and b* in system CIE-L*a*b*.
Indeed, the relationship Corg ¼ f [log (L* þ u* þ v*)] was slightly
stronger than Corg ¼ f [log (v*)]. But the R2-growth was weak: from
0.63 to 0.68. This slight R2-increase is due to wrong choice of
argument. It is desirable instead of one argument: (L* þ u* þ v*) or
(L* þ a* þ b*) to use three arguments in the regression equation:
each color indicator individually. Of course, in order to determine
parameters in the three-factor regression equation, we have to use
a more sophisticated calculation program. This approach was sug-
gested by us to obtain a multiple regression equations. Thus, we are
able to more accurately calculate Corg in the sample set.
The goals: 1) to study the effect of organic matter on mineral soil
pigments and to estimate its ability, based on single-factor equa-
tions of soil color indicators; 2) to identify the content of organic
carbon using three-factor regression equation for soil color pa-
rameters in the system.
Objects
We analyzed soils from taiga and tundra zones.
Soils were studied in four Catenas in the taiga zone of Perm
region. In the “Soboli” Catena in the Perm region, soil were formed
on heavy deposits of Ufa horizon [1,21]. Catena length is about
1000 m. It is represented by four profiles. There are among them:
agro-sod-podzolic (profile 61, medium loam); agro-sod-podzolic
gley (profile 62, heavy loam); structural and metamorphic light-
gley agrosol, underlained by sandy loam (profile 63); dark
humus-gley (profile 64, light clay) and humus-gley soil (profile 65,
light clay).
“Mulyanka” Catena is located on the bank of Mulyanka river, left
tributary of Kama river on the outskirts of Perm [2,20]. Alluvial soils
were studied in three profiles. There are among them: alluvial bog
(profile 32), soddy-alluvial in the middle part of the floodplain
(profile 33) and alluvial sod layer in the river bed part of the
floodplain (profile 34).
“Orly” Catena in Il'yinsky district of the Perm region with a
length of about 500 m is represented by three profiles, including
dark humus agroligosol (profile 71), brown agrosol (profile 72) and
dark-humus gley soil (profile 73). According to size distribution
composition, the soils are mainly related to light clays [1,21].
Loamy cryohydromorphic gley soils were studied in the tundra
zone of the Kolyma lowland [22]. The average annual air temper-
ature in the north of the Kolyma lowland is 11 …- 14 С, the
average monthly temperature in July is þ6 … þ 12 С. The period
duration of positive average daily temperatures is 110e120 days.
During the year 150e300 mm of precipitation falls (60e100 mm in
summer), the coefficient of humidification is 0.6e0.9.
Methods
The main characteristics of soils were determined by standard
methods [23]. The size distribution composition were determined
according to Kachinsky; the pH (aqueous and salt) e tentiometri-
cally; the content of organic carbon according to Tyurin; the con-
tent of free, non-silicate iron compounds treating by Mera-Jackson
dithionite-citrate-bicarbonate.
382 Yu.N. Vodyanitskii, A.T. Savichev / Annals of Agrarian Science 15 (2017) 380e385
The composition of iron minerals was studied by two methods.
With the help of a transmission electron microscope, the soils in
“Mulyanka” Catena from Perm region were analyzed. A trans-
mission electron microscope JEM-100C was used, which allows to
combine the image of particles with the microdiffraction of elec-
trons and the determination of the chemical composition of the
particles on a KEVEX microanalyzer. In addition to well-ordered
minerals (hematite, goethite), the method makes it possible to
reveal the mineral composition of various poorly ordered iron hy-
droxides (ferrihydrite, feroxigite, lepidocrocite) and iron carbonate-
siderite FeCO3. The disadvantage of the method is that it is quali-
tative and allows only to reveal the predominance of some minerals
over others.
Mo€ssbauer spectroscopy was used to study the remaining soils:
in the “Soboli” and “Orly” Catenas in Perm region, and also in the
cryosols of Kolyma Lowland. The Ms-1104 Em spectrometer was
used in the regime of constant accelerations with a 57Co-source in a
chromium matrix at the room temperature. The Mossbauer spectra
were recorded in 256 channels and processed using the Univem MS
program. The method allows to determine the content of well-
ordered minerals: hematite and goethite, but because of low
sensitivity (the exposition was taken without cooling the sample) it
is impossible to identify poorly ordered iron hydroxides.
In the soils of Ural, the content of hematite and goethite was
determined on the basis of sextets. The hematite particles were
distinguished by the magnitude of the magnetic field on the Fe
nuclei, it is higher (504e508 kOe) in larger particles than in small
particles (479e484 kOe). In the spectra of the Kolyma cryosols, in
the absence of (hydro)iron oxides, which the sextets provide, only
doublets were found, that are related to the iron in the silicate
composition. They are identified as Fe (III)-montmorillonite and Fe
(II)-biotite.
The color characteristics of the soils were determined on a
Pulsar spectro-colorimeter with an integral sphere and with a light
source, imitating daylight solar illumination. Data on the color of
the soils were obtained in the CIE-L*a*b* optical system, where L* is
the lightness, a* is the redness and b* is the yellowness of the ob-
ject, expressed in dimensionless magnitudes. An important char-
acteristic of the color tone of soils is the ratio between redness and
yellowness a*rel ¼ a*/b*, which characterizes the “relative redness”
of soils. Tentatively, we will consider, that the relative redness of
the soils is high for a* rel > 0.45, moderate for a*rel ¼ 0.25e0.45 and
low for a*rel < 0.25.
In general, the higher the relative redness, the higher the pro-
portion of red hematite compared цшер the proportion of yellow
iron hydroxides, which in our soils are represented by goethite. But,
this rule requires clarification, due to the heterogeneity of the
particles color of Fe-(hydr)oxides. In hematite, this heterogeneity of
color is expressed in the fact, that the particles of fine hematite are
more yellowish than large. Therefore, the high value of relative
redness can be the result not only of an abundance of hematite, but
also evidence of its large size, which is typical for lithogenic he-
matite of red-colored Permian deposits.
The univariate regression equations for the Corg-dependence on
each of the three color indicators were calculated in Excel program.
Then, reliable dependencies were determined from the condition
r > rcr on the basis of the z-transformation at P ¼ 0.95. This allows
us to reveal the reliable effect of humus, neutralizing the contri-
bution of white, red, green, yellow and blue pigments to the color of
these samples of soils.
Excluding the influence of organic matter (assuming Corg ¼ 0)
from the single-factor regression equations: Corg ¼ f (L*, a*, b*), we
obtain the color indicators of the non-humus matrix of the soils:
lightness Lmatrix, redness amatrix, and yellowness bmatrix. The differ-
ence gives the magnitude of the change in the color indicators of
the soil due to the influence of organic matter. For example, the
change in lightness due to the influence of organic matter is
determined from the difference: DL ¼ Lmatrix - Lsoil. Also, we
calculate the change in the redness Da and yellowness Db due to
the effect of organic matter.
Since the contents of organic matter in soils are different, in
order to compare the neutralizing abilities of organic matter of
different soils, we normalized the change in color indicators to the
average content of Corg in each sample, obtaining the pigmentation
ability coefficient of organic matter Kpaom. The ability of an organic
matter to reduce the lightness of a mineral matrix is expressed
through the ratio of Kpaom(L) ¼ DL/Corg (% 1). We will consider, that
the pigmenting ability is high for Kpaom(L) > 8% 1, and low for
Kpaom(L) < 8% 1.
Three-factorы equations for the regression of the dependence
on all three color indicators were found using the following algo-
rithm. Let us suppose, that there are the following arrays of
experimental data for the one profile: Corg meas i, Li, ai, bi, where the
index i runs through the values i ¼ 1,2,3, …, N; N is the number of
samples. We are looking for the dependence of the calculated
arrary Corg calc i on the measured data Li, ai, bi as a linear function:
Corg calc i ¼ f (Li, ai, bi) ¼ XL$Li þ Xa$ai þ Xb$bi þ X0. (1)
It is easy to see that for the three-factors regression equations it
is necessary to find four parameters: the coefficients for the
measured data are XL, Xa, Xb and the free term X0. These four pa-
rameters are searched by the method of least squares from mini-
mizing the deviation of the measured and calculated arrays Corg
meas i and Corg calc i, i.e. from minimizing the expression:
N 
X 2
Corg calc i  Corg meas i = Corg meas i ¼ min; (2)
i¼1
or
X
N  2
XL $Li þXa $ai þXb $bi þX0  Corg =Corg
meas i meas i
i¼1
¼ min: (3)
It follows from the structure of expressions (2) and (3) that not
the traditional absolute (DC) or relative (DC/C) deviations, but the
K-factor (DC/C½), as a measure of error. The advantages of choosing
the K-factor as a measure of error were considered in detail in
Ref. [24].
One begins the search for unknown coefficients XL, Xa, Xb and X0
begins with differentiating expression (3) for each of these pa-
rameters and equating each partial derivative to zero. In this case,
we obtain a system of four linear equations with four unknowns,
which are the sought parameters. The system of linear equations is
solved by the Gauss method. Then the elements of the Сorg calc i -
array are computed from formula (1) and the variance of the K-
factor is calculated:
( )½
N  2
1 X
DK ¼ Corg calc i  Corg meas i =Corg meas i
N  4 i¼1
(4)
After this, the correlation coefficient r is calculated between the
arrays Сorg calc i and Сorg meas i.
Reliable results of calculating the coefficients of the three-factor
regression equations can be obtained if the following requirements
are fulfilled. The number of samples should be quite large: N > 8.
 Yu.N. Vodyanitskii, A.T. Savichev / Annals of Agrarian Science 15 (2017) 380e385 383

Second requirement, samples with a Corg content of >0.4% should All the correlation coefficients of the individual dependencies
be included in the sample set, otherwise the effect of organic Corg ~ L*, Corg ~ a* and Corg ~ b* are statistically reliable. Thus, the
matter on the color of the soil is distorted, which affects the organic matter reduces the lightness, redness and yellowness of
decrease in the correlation coefficient. these soils of the Cis-Urals. In other words, the organic matter
If these conditions are met, the three-factor regression equa- neutralizes the effect of white, red and yellow soil pigments. This is
tions give a more accurate dependence of the Corg-content on the confirmed by calculations.
color indicators of the soils of this sample set. As can be seen from Table 3, the lightness of the humid matrix L*
reaches 53.2, although on average the lightness of the soils is only
L* ¼ 44.5. Similarly, the redness of the humus matrix a* is equal to
Results and discussion 10.0, while in average the redness of the soil is a* ¼ 5.7. Yellowness
also increases; the yellowness of the humus matrix reaches
Data on the composition of Fe-minerals, as well as statistical b* ¼ 21.8, although in average the yellowness of the soil is only
characteristics of organic carbon and soil color for six objects are L* ¼ 14.2.
given in Table 1. Here are presented all three indicators of color: L*, Pigmenting ability of humus in relation to white mineral pig-
a* and b*, and also the relative redness a*rel ¼ a*/b*. ments of soils in “Soboli” Catena is low: Kpaom(L) ¼ 5.30% 1
The results of calculating the regression equations are given in (Table 4).
Table 2. The three-factor regression equation is written as:
“Soboli” Catena. The content of organic carbon varies from 0.41
to 4.35%, averaging 1.64%. The main Fe-minerals are: hematite Corg ¼ 7.18e0.095 L* e 0.164$a*e 0.038 b*.
aFe2O3 oxide and goethite hydroxide aFeOOH. The content of large
hematite is small: 1.35% in the parent rock, 1.36% in the illuvial BM- The three-factor regression equation raises the correlation co-
horizon and only 0.34% in the humus PY-horizon. efficient: to r ¼ 0.95, compared to r ¼ 0.90 for the single-factor
Soil lightness is L* ¼ 31.9e53.3, redness a* ¼ 2.6e9.3, yellow- equation Corg ¼ f (L*); this allows us to count the content of
ness b* ¼ 6.1e21.0. A distinctive feature of these soils on ancient organic matter in soils more accurately.
alluvium is minimal lightness, in average 44.3. Relative redness of “Mulyanka” Catena. The content of organic carbon varies from
soils is moderate: a*/b* ¼ 0.40. 0.41 to 4.00%, averaging 0.94%. The main Fe-minerals are: hematite
aFe2O3 oxide, hydroxides: goethite aFeOH and feroxigite dFeOH
and carbonate-siderite FeCO3.
Table 1
Organic carbon content (%), basic iron-containing minerals and soil color
Average soil lightness is L* ¼ 46.2, redness a* ¼ 5.6, yellowness
parameters. b* ¼ 14.5. A distinctive feature of these soils on ancient alluvium is
the minimum humification, in average 0.94% Corg. Relative redness
Value Corg L* a* b* а*/b* Fe-minerals
of soils is moderate: a*/b* ¼ 0.39, as in soils of “Soboli” Catena.
“Soboli” Catena, N ¼ 15 Separate dependences Corg ~ L* and Corg ~ a* show that the
Min 0.41 31.9 2.6 6.1 Hematite, goethite
Max 4.35 53.3 9.3 21.0
organic matter reliably reduces the lightness and redness of these
Average 1.64 44.5 5.7 14.2 0.40 soils, that is, neutralizes the effect of white and red pigments. If we
“Mulyanka” Catena, N ¼ 16
Min 0.41 38.8 3.8 10.5
Max 4.00 50.7 8.0 19.0
Averige 0.94 46.2 5.6 14.5 0.39 Table 3
“Orly” Catena, N ¼ 9 Color of mineral matrix of soils.
Min 0.41 34.2 3.7 9.1 Hematite, goethite
Soils L* a* b*
Max 6.70 51.4 13.4 21.3
Average 1.68 45.6 8.5 16.7 0.51 “Soboli” Catena 53.2 10.0 21.8
Kolyma Lowland, N ¼ 17 “Mulyanka” Catena 57.8 10.0 Not
Min 0.91 49.7 0.1 9.0 Montmorillonite, “Orly” Catena 62.2 Not 22.1
Max 3.82 56.8 5.4 21.1 containing Fe (III); Kolyma Lowland Not 3.6 Not
Average 1.83 53.0 1.4 15.0 0.09 biotite, containing Fe (II)
Note: “Not” means no reliable data on the color of the mineral matrix.

Table 2
Single-factor and three-factor regression equations of the bond between organic carbon content and soil color.

Parameter Сorg ¼ f (L) Сorg ¼ f (a) Соrg ¼ f (b) Соrg ¼ f (L, a, b)

“Soboli” Canets, N ¼ 15
Equation С ¼ 7.45e0.14 L С ¼ 2.69e0.27$a С ¼ 3.82e0.175 b С ¼ 7.18e0.095 L e 0.164$a e 0.038 b
r 0.903* 0.754* 0.898* 0.948
Dк 0.586 0.758 0.592 0.469
“Orly” Catena, N ¼ 9
Equation С ¼ 3.61e0.058 L С ¼ 2.11e0.13$a С ¼ 5.36e0.242 b С ¼ 5.41e0.0031 L e 0.014$a e 0.23 b
r 0.718* 0.611 0.867* 0.865
Dк 0.970 0.758 0.915 0.690
“Mulyanka” Catena, N ¼ 15
Equation С ¼ 3.76e0.065 L С ¼ 1.64e0.164$a С ¼ 1.48e0.053 b С ¼ 3.61e0.056 L e 0.0761$a þ 0.011 b
r 0.658* 0.609* 0.490 0.676
Dк 0.484 0.503 0.568 0.519
Kolyma Lowland, N ¼ 17
Equation С ¼ 6.97e0.10 L С ¼ 1.23 þ 0.34$a С ¼ 1.43 þ 0.014 b С ¼ 1.10 þ 0.11 L þ1.05$a e 0.29 b
r 0.473 0.722* 0.266 0.830
Dк 0.412 0.365 0.440 0.260

Note: * - valid for probability P ¼ 0.95.

384 Yu.N. Vodyanitskii, A.T. Savichev / Annals of Agrarian Science 15 (2017) 380e385
Table 4
Effect of humus on the color of mineral pigments of the soil and the pigmentation capacity of humus, according to the Kpaom(L) -factor (%
“Soboli” Catena
Humus neutralizes the contribution of whites (DL ¼ 8.7), red (Da ¼ 4.3) and yellow (Db ¼ 7.6) pigments.
The pigmenting ability of humus is low: Kpaom(L) ¼ 5.3
“Mukyanka” Catena
Humus neutralizes the contribution of whites (DL ¼ 11.6) and red (Da ¼ 4.4) pigments
The pigmenting ability of humus is high: Kpaom(L) ¼ 12.3
“Orly” Catena
Humus neutralizes the contribution of whites (DL ¼ 16.6) and yellow (Db ¼ 5.4) pigments.
The pigmenting ability of humus is high: Kpaom(L) ¼ 9.9
Kolyma Lowland
Humus neutralizes the contribution of green (Da ¼ 5.0) pigments.
The pigmenting ability of humus is not established
exclude the influence of organic matter from the single-factor
regression equation, we find that the lightness of the zero-humus
matrix is L* ¼ 57.8, although in average the soil brightness is
L* ¼ 46.2. Similarly, the redness of the zero-humus matrix a* ¼ 10.0,
while the average soil redness is a* ¼ 5.6.
Neutralizing ability of humus in the soils of “Mukyanka” Catena
is high: Kpaom(L) ¼ 12.30% 1.
The three-factor regression equation is written as:
Corg ¼ 3.61e0.056 L* e 0.0761$a* þ 0.011 b*.
The three-factor regression equation slightly increases the cor-
relation coefficient: up to r ¼ 0.68, against with r ¼ 0.66 for the
single-factor equation Corg ¼ f (L*).
“Orly” Catena. The content of organic carbon varies from 0.41 to
6.70%, averaging 1.68%. The main Fe-minerals are: hematite aFe2O3
oxide and goethite hydroxide aFeOOH.
Soil lightness is L* ¼ 34.2e51.4, redness a* ¼ 3.7e13.4, yellow-
ness b* ¼ 9.1e21.3. A distinctive feature of these soils is the
maximum redness (on average 8.5), due to hematite providing a
red color of the parent rock of Permian age. Accordingly, the relative
redness of soils is high: a*/b* ¼ 0.51. Mo€ssbauer spectroscopy data
showed a relatively high content of coarse hematite particles: 2.12%
in the parent rock, 1.43% in the illuvial BM-horizon, and only 0.42%
in the humus AU-horizon. The weak connections of humus with the
largest, most red hematite particles hinder the adsorption of
organic molecules, while humus forms stronger bonds with the
finer yellow particles of hematite and yellow particles of goethite.
All this can help to neutralize the yellow matrix of these soils by the
organic matter.
Correlation coefficients are reliable with probability P ¼ 0.95 for
lightness and yellowness. Separate dependences Corg ~ L* and
Corg ~ b* show that humus reduces the lightness and yellowness of
soils on the red-colored sediments of the Cis-Urals, that is, humus
neutralizes the effect of white and yellow pigments. If we exclude
the influence of humus from the one-factor regression equation, we
find that the lightness of the humus-free matrix L* ¼ 62.2, although
in the average the lightness of the soils is only L* ¼ 45.6. The high
lightness of the mineral phase is probably due to the presence of
carbonates. Thus, in dark-humus agrolitosol (profile 71) deeper
than 25 cm, an effervescent carbonate horizon CCa begins, con-
taining high CaO ¼ 34.5% [20].
Similarly, the yellowness of the humus-free matrix b* is equal to
22.1, while in the mean yellowness of the soil is only b* ¼ 16.7. A
distinctive feature of large bright red lithogenic hematite is the
inertness of its particles, which prevents the sorption of organic
molecules of humus. This circumstance can explain the specific
effect of humus on Fe-pigments in the soils of the “Orly” Catena.
1
).
The pigmenting ability of humus in the soils of the “Orly” Catena
is high: Kpaom(L) ¼ 9.88% 1.
The three-factor regression equation is written as:
Corg ¼ 5.41e0.0031 L* e 0.014$a* e 0.23 b*.
The three-factor regression equation raises the correlation co-
efficient: r ¼ 0.87, compared with r ¼ 0.72 for the single-factor
equation Corg ¼ f (L*).
Kolyma soils. The content of organic carbon varies from 0.91 to
3.82%, averaging 1.83%.
Soil lightness is L* ¼ 49.7e56.8, redness a* ¼ 0.1e5.4, yellow-
ness b* ¼ 9.0e21.1. Cryosols differ in maximum lightness from Cis-
Urals soils, in the middle L* ¼ 53.0 and minimum redness a* ¼ 1.4.
The relative redness of cryosols is low: a*/b* ¼ 0.09. The small
redness of cryosols is due to the specific composition of dark and
green Fe-minerals: montmorillonite, containing Fe (III) and biotite,
containing Fe (II).
The separate dependences Corg ~ L*, Corg ~ a* and Corg ~ b* show
that humus significantly increases the redness of the Kolyma cry-
osols, neutralizing the action of green pigments.
Humus increases the redness of cryosols in the Kolyma Lowland.
This is confirmed by calculating the redness of a * from the one-
factor regression equation: Corg ¼ 1.23 þ 0.34$a*. If we exclude
the influence of humus (Corg ¼ 0), we find that the redness of the
mineral matrix is negative: a* ¼ 3.6. In this case, in the average,
the redness of the cryosemes is a* ¼ 1.4 (Table 1). Obviously, humus
increases the redness of soils, due to the neutralization of the green
color of Fe-phyllosilicates: montmorillonite and biotite. It is pre-
cisely the mass of unbroken clay minerals, under the conditions of
the weak iron oxidation, that determines the green color of the
cryosols.
The three-factor regression equation is written as:
Corg ¼ 1.10 þ 0.11 L* þ1.05$a* e 0.29 b*.
The three-factor regression equation significantly increases the
correlation coefficient: up to r ¼ 0.83, compared to r ¼ 0.47 for the
single-factor dependence Corg ¼ f (L*), which allows us to calculate
the content of Corg in the Kolyma cryosols more accurately.
Conclusion
1. The color of the soil can be represented as the sum of the colors
of two phases: mineral matrix and organic matter. After deter-
mining the content of Corg and the color of soils in the CIE-Lab
system in this sample set, we then calculate the color indexes of
the mineral phase from the single-factor regression equations:
 Yu.N. Vodyanitskii, A.T. Savichev / Annals of Agrarian Science 15 (2017) 380e385
Corg ¼ f (L*), Corg ¼ f (a*) and Corg ¼ f (b*) under the condition
Corg ¼ 0.
According to the color of the mineral matrix, the studied soils of
Cis-Urals do not differ in redness a* ¼ 10.0 and yellowness
b* ¼ 21.8e22.1, but differ greatly in lightness: the darkest
mineral matrix in the “Soboli” Catena (L* ¼ 53.2), and the
lightest soils of “Orly” Catena, probably due to the presence of
white carbonate particles. The mineral matrix of Kolyma cry-
osols is green (a* ¼ 3.6).
2. The effect of organic matter is not limited to the neutralization
of the lightness of white pigments, for example, quartz and
calcium carbonate. The organic substance, covering the film
with particles of red, yellow and green pigments, also neutral-
izes their effect on the color of the soils. When calculating one-
factor regression equations for only two objects (“Soboli” and
“Mulyanka” Catenas), the correlation coefficients of the equa-
tion Corg ¼ f (L*) reach a maximum. But in two other objects,
correlations of organic matter with lightness are inferior to
correlations with the red (Kolyma soils) or yellow (“Orly”
Catena).
3. From the single-factor regression equations Corg ¼ f (L*), one can
also calculate the pigmentation capacity of organic matter with
respect to white soil pigments. It reaches a maximum in the soils
of the “Orly” Catena, where calcium carbonates are present. In
the Kolyma cryosols, because of the non-reliability of the
regression equation Corg ¼ f (L*), it was not possible to calculate
the pigmenting capacity of humus.
4. For a more accurate determination of the humus content, you
should use three instead of one argument in the regression
equation: each of the color indicators separately. Three-factor
regression equations made it possible more accurately to
calculate the content of organic carbon in the soils of two of the
three Catenas of Cis- Urals and in the Kolyma cryosols.
Acknowledgments
Authors thank Gilev A.V., Mergelov N.S., Romanova A.V., who
provided soil samples for analysis.
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