Ecological Assessment of Alluvial Soil Resistance to Anthropogenic Impact

Abstract

The article presents studies aimed at establishing the influence of anthropogenic impact on composition and properties of the alluvial soddy soil. Assessment is demonstrated of the degree of damage caused to soils as a result of fertile layer removal and closure. Degree of the alluvial soil fertility indicator alteration is established by the water extract pH value, content of organic matter, level of provision with available forms of phosphorus in connection to violating the stripping and quarrying technology in extraction of construction sand and reclamation of damaged lands. Our studies were conducted on a land plot with soil samples of alluvial soddy soil taken at the depth of 0-20 cm. Rate of decrease was established in the organic matter content in soil layer of 0-20 cm as a result of stripping and quarrying. Studies demonstrated significant alteration in the soil granulometric (grain) composition in the damaged land confirmed by a sharp decrease in the soil aggregate fractions number. Destruction of the alluvial soil fertile layer, and damage to the soil cover during extraction of minerals by the open-pit quarrying method, and, as a consequence, deterioration in its environmental and water protection role, both for natural soils and for soils of river valleys, was proved. Thus, degradation of soil, as a means of agricultural production, is a loss of soil fertility and land productivity; soil degradation, as a historically formed body, is a decrease in its reliability, elasticity and durability. Negative processes are manifested to a varying degree on agricultural lands, which requires the need to assess the levels of impact of factors causing degradation, degree of soil alteration and possibility of their rehabilitation, elaboration of ways to optimize and create an ecologically sustainable land use system.