Research Into Soil Resource Management Technologies in Context of Aggravating Exogenic Processes

Abstract

The erosion of soil falls into the class of landscape destruction processes. It disturbs the balance in the geoecosystem to a significant extent, thus generating the whole spectrum of negative geo-ecological after-effects. The protection of soils against erosion and the improvement of fertility in sloped agricultural landscapes are part of the overall environmental concern that has notably aggravated lately. This has given rise to a number of topical issues for which scientific and practical solutions are urgently required. The paper describes the state of the art in the research into the issue of the protection of soils against erosion. It discusses the regional patterns in the progress of erosion processes. The integrated agro-ecological assessment of the effect that various components of the integrated erosion protection system have on the erosion resistance and properties of soils in agricultural landscapes was outlined for the development and implementation of conservation cropping systems. The study is based on the results of the long-term stationary and expeditionary field research that addressed the following issues: the natural conditions of the territory and the development of erosion processes as a result of snowmelt and rain water runoff, as well as artificial sprinkling. The research was carried out using a combination of geomorphological, cartographic and pedomorphological analysis methods and approaches. By modelling rainfalls on typical eroded chernozem soils in combination with different agricultural crop growing technologies, the quantitative characteristics for the resulting erosion losses were determined. These characteristics are needed to make long-term forecasts of the development of erosion processes in agricultural land areas in the context of intensifying exogenic processes. The tested soil-protecting agronomic technologies (subsurface blade tillage to a depth of 10-12 cm with simultaneous slitting to a depth of 40 cm, subsurface blade tillage to a depth of 20-22 cm) demonstrated their high erosion prevention efficiency. They reduced the surface run-off by a factor of 1.3-2.3, the soil loss by a factor of 1.9-12.7 in comparison to the traditional ploughing to a depth of 20-22 cm. Accordingly, the indices and conditions of the surface run-off water infiltration into the soil were also optimised with these techniques.