Soil indicators of bird activity in the temperate climatic zone – A case‐study

Abstract

The importance of birds to pedogenesis and their impact on soil characteristics is a long-standing topic of research. For this reason, the ornithogenic soils (avian soils) are distinguished as a separate category in some soil classifications. The continuous progress of knowledge on and changes in the management of the Earth's resources demand constant updating of definitions and classification criteria in various fields of environmental sciences. A search of the literature revealed few studies that examine the properties of bird soils in the temperate climate zone. This paper focuses on ornithogenic material: grit and bones deposited in the topsoil. Although areas covered by such soils are limited to 1-100 ha, they are found in high abundance in Europe and Asia. The surface horizon of the soil examined in the current study in Pozna n, Poland, contained ample ornithogenic material; however, the soil's phosphorus content was remarkably low. Therefore, the analysed soil may not be considered as an ornithogenic soil, nor can it be attributed to the ornithic supplementary qualifier provided by the World Reference Base (WRB). The case study presented here exemplifies that soils containing ornithogenic material but lacking phosphorous compounds may occur in the temperate climate zone. Therefore, we conclude that ornithogenic material is the only permanent indicator of the existence of large groups of birds in non-polar climate zones.