The history of the phytolith investigations in Russia

The article describes the history of the phytolith method in Russia. It is shown that the method began to be used to address fundamental issues of evolution of Сhernozems since 1850, i.e. more than 160 years ago. It is noteworthy that this is one of the first examples of phytolith analysis used for research purposes in the world. Moreover, it is in Russia that this analysis was first used to solve the genetic problems of pedology, back in the days when "soil science" itself was not yet acknowledged as a separate branch of science. Over the past almost 170 years, the development of phytolithology in our country passed through three stages: from isolated research works published at considerable intervals (mid-XIX - first half of the XX century) to regular research of individual scientists (second half of the XX century) and eventually to the formation of research teams in different regions of the country with a large number of publications in all areas of phytolithology (XXI century).

phytoliths, Erenberg, Eichwald, Ruprecht, Dokuchaev, Chernozem