Supraglacial Soils and Soil-Like Bodies: Diversity, Genesis, Functioning (Review)

— In the 21st century, glaciers are perceived as a distinct biome that has taken on special significance in today’s world of retreating ice. In this paper, we review the results of recent studies of organomineral formations on glaciers, their diversity, genesis, functioning, and the role in the biosphere. The question is raised about the possibility of involving supraglacial organomineral formations in the range of objects of soil science. We review the supraglacial zone as an area of soils and soil-like bodies, the biogeochemical processes in which affect the glacial biome and the surrounding landscapes. Interpretation of supraglacial organomineral formations from a pedological point of view allows us to identify several typical soil processes: accumulation and stabilization of organic matter (OM), its heterotrophic transformation, formation of dark-colored humified OM, accumulation of residual solid-phase products of functioning in situ, fine earth aggregation, and biochemical weathering. Among supraglacial formations, we distinguish pre-soils and soil-like bodies in ice and snow, metastable soil-like bodies on cryoconite, and soils with microprofiles under moss communities on ice, as well as relatively stable soils with macroprofiles on silicate gravelly to fine-earth deposits underlain by moving glacier and dead glacier ice. Labile dissolved OM accumulated and transformed in supraglacial soils and soil-like bodies has a significant impact on the periglacial zone, leading to the reservoir and priming effects. The studies of supraglacial organomineral systems are of fundamental importance for understanding the evolution of ecosystems on Earth, as well as for modeling supraglacial formations of extraterrestrial bodies with a vast cryosphere. Supraglacial soil formation is also a model object for studying common soils under conditions of a continuous external input of organic and mineral components, the contribution of which beyond the glaciers is no less significant, but is masked by the polymineral substrate of soils and parent rocks themselves.