Assessment of Soil Properties in Monitoring Land at Regional-Local Level

Author(s):  I.V.Zamotaev, Dr., associate Professor, Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia, zivigran@rambler.ru

V.P. Belobrov, Dr., Dokuchaev Soil Science Institute, Moscow, Russia

S.A.Judin, candidate of Sciences, Dokuchaev Soil Science Institute, Moscow, Russia

D.V. Belobrova, State University of Land Use Planning, Moscow, Russia

Issue:  Volume 42, № 2

Rubric:  Earth sciences

Annotation:  The results of soil studies for the agrolandscapes of the Lgov district, Kursk region are presented. They prove that the most of gray forest soils and chernozems involved in intensive agricultural activities are degrading now. This degradation is manifested by activation of sheet and linear erosion, the decrease in the soil organic carbon content and the thickness of the humus soil horizons, the formation compaction under the arable layer, the changes in soil structure, and the decrease in the water resistance of aggregates. As a result the two main trends of soils development have been identified for the region in study as trends of agrogenic degradation and agrogenic erosion. The trend of agrogenic degradation is the most clearly expressed only on the land plots of garden associations and individual vegetable gardens under the close bedding of bedrock and/or on the slopes more than 3–5 in steep. The trend of agrogenic erosion is typical for intensively used agricultural lands especially for the large cropland areas located on the steep and/or long slopes. For small-scale land parcels in the garden non-profit partnerships and in the kitchen gardens, agrogenic progradation is typical. Cadastral evaluation of lands with different trends of soil transformation and cluster analysis of soil properties were conducted.

Keywords:  land use, agropogenic and post-agrogenic transformation, agrogray soils, agrochernozems, degradation, progradation, cluster analysis, cadastrall assessment, Kursk Region.

Full text (PDF):  Download

Downloads count:  429