The laboratory was created in 1993 on the initiative of Academicians G.V. Dobrovolsky and V.E. Sokolov. The laboratory's main task is to study the influence of soil properties on the organization of soil biota and the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. From 2013 to 2016, the laboratory was headed by V.A. Terekhova, Dr. Sci. (Biol.).
G.V. Dobrovolsky (1915-2013) was a Soviet and Russian soil scientist, an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences (since 1992), and Doctor of Biological Sciences. He was the founder of the Faculty of Soil Science at Moscow State University and its first dean (1973-1989), head of the Department of Soil Geography of the faculty in 1960-1988, and Honored Professor of Moscow State University. He was awarded the Grand Gold Medal of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2013, posthumously); in 1995 he received the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland," 4th class, and in 2005, 3rd class. He was a laureate of the Russian Government Prize (2005), the USSR State Prize in Science and Technology (1987), the Russian State Prize in Science and Technology (2001), the Russian State Prize in Science and Technology for 2012 (2013, posthumously), and the M.V. Lomonosov Prize for scientific and pedagogical activity (1984, 1997), among others. A veteran of the Great Patriotic War, he was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd class, and the medals "For Combat Merit," "For the Victory over Germany," and "For the Victory over Japan."
From 1977 to 1991, G.V. Dobrovolsky was editor-in-chief of the "Soil Science" series of the scientific journal "Moscow University Bulletin," and from 1987, of the scientific journal "Pochvovedenie" (Soil Science).
Under Dobrovolsky's supervision, 35 candidate and 14 doctoral dissertations were defended. At the Faculty of Soil Science of Moscow State University he taught a course on geography, as well as soil classification and systematics, and in his later years taught the course "History and Methodology of Soil Science."
His scientific interests included the genesis, morphology, geography, and cartography of soils, their classification and evolution, ecological functions, and general problems of the theory and history of soil science. Dobrovolsky substantiated the method of successive mineralogical-micromorphological study of soil genesis, revealed the theoretical foundations of the genesis of alluvial soils, developed their classification, and formulated recommendations for their rational use. Together with E.D. Nikitin, in 1986-1990 he developed the concept of the ecological-genetic functions of soils in the biosphere.