The practice of determining the age of fallow based on the patterns of development of postagrogenic succession

Abstract

One of the tasks set when establishing the fact of inappropriate use of agricultural land in the framework of law
enforcement practice is to determine the period of non-use of land for agricultural purposes. As the most accessible
methods that can be used to determine the age of a fallow in the absence of documented data on the history of the
land plot and aerial and space survey materials is the study of the vegetation cover formed on the studied sites during
the postagrogenic succession and the transformation of the arable horizon.
In the course of a study conducted on the territory of agricultural lands located within the Kurgan region, it was
found that the exact determination of the period of non-use of land is possible using dendrochronology methods in
the presence of trees on the site. In addition, the study of the species composition of grassy vegetation allowed us to
identify a number of communities belonging to the successive stages of development of postagrogenic succession:
weedy, the stage of rhizomatous cereals, the stage of transition from rhizomatous to loose-turf cereal grasses, however,
it is not possible to accurately determine the duration of these stages. At the same time, a comparative analysis
of the species composition of various areas of grassy vegetation, as well as the thickness and composition of the sod,
allows us to establish the similarity of two or more sites, one of which has woody vegetation, which is a marker of
the age of the fallow and in neighboring areas.
Thus, the main feature that allows you to determine the age of a fallow on the land plot is the age of the existing
woody vegetation. As an additional feature that allows determining a single contour of a deposit of a certain age,
the species composition of the herbaceous biocenosis, the degree of development and the composition of the sod
can be used.