Articles

The study of erodibility of model soils using the methodology of washing out soil samples with a water stream in a hydrodynamic tube has been carried out. In comparison to the traditional method of vertical loading of cartridges, the new method of soil samples formation using horizontal loading allowed to obtain more homogeneous resistance of samples in the process of their erosion by water flow, to which the formed layers of soil aggregates are located perpendicularly. The use of the «Poseidon» measuring device made it possible to obtain washout intensities in dynamics, to evaluate the quality of sample preparation and to analyze the data in order to cull them, especially in the beginning and the end of the experiments. In addition, the use of the device allowed to skip some operations needed to clarify the data of experiments at their early termination (remainder accounting that requires drying to determine the mass of washed out soil by difference). The data files generated by the device at the end of experiments significantly simplified their processing and considerably reduced the time required for it. The coefficient of varia- tion of the washout intensity value decreased by 12% on average when using the new method of sample preparation compared to the previous one. The moisture ranges with minimum erodibility have been established for model soils. Dependences of soil washing intensity on water flow velocity in the range from 0.5 to 2.5 m∙s–1 were demonstrated. The results confirm the correlation of soil washout intensity with the cube of the flow velocity. Soil erodibility was determined as a coefficient of proportionality between the intensity of soil washout and the cube of flow velocity. The maximum erodibility coefficient typical for agrogray soil equals to 179×10–6, and the minimum value obtained for agrochernozem was 53.0×10–6 s2∙m–2. Agrosod-podzol soil features the intermediate value of erodibility coefficient: 80.3×10–6 s2∙m–2. The proposed methodological approaches and obtained experimental results can be further used to assess the erodibility of soil and soil monoliths and model samples of polyfractional composition close to natural.

Land degradation is a global problem of humankind, where the greatest contribution belongs to aridity and soil erosion. The social consequences of land degradation are extremely important, but poorly conceptualized issues. This makes it difficult to create effective research programs to study them. The article provides an overview of the issues under consideration. An expert study was conducted to identify a problem field in the field of studying the social consequences of land degradation. By interviewing nine recognized scientific experts in the field of land degradation studies, the most stable judgments were identified, which served as a basis for highlighting the main forms of manifestation of the social consequences of land degradation. Private research concepts were compiled, which consist in highlighting the position of each expert on the main consequences of land degradation. As a result, a generalized expert model of the problem field of the social consequences of land degradation was formed. According the model all experts note the interdisciplinary nature of the study of the issues under consideration, which are placed at the intersection of environmental, economic and social problems. The overwhelming majority of experts noted the direct nature of the impact of land degradation on the formation of social consequences. Thanks to the integration of private concepts, it was possible to identify such aspects on which there are discrepancies. That provides an opportunity for a broader study of the social consequences of land degradation. However, there is an expert opinion that the social consequences are rather indirect and are realized through resource problems. Some experts draw attention to the fact that there are the extreme forms of land degradation that significantly increases the manifestation of social consequences. According to experts, land degradation can lead to a change in social status; a decrease in the recreational potential of land; hunger; a change in life expectancy, job loss; increased stratification of society; changes in the cost of housing and a change in the type of land use; reducing the use of land for agricultural needs and changing people’s attitudes to more individualistic ones. It was also noted that the use of products from degraded lands could lead to an increase in cancer incidence in the region. Conceptualization and identification of these problems could help to focus efforts in the field of studying the social problems of land degradation.

The paper considers the spatial heterogeneity of the flow of eroded soil material to the foot of the plowed slope and further to the side of the valley in the presence of a lyncahrt resulting fr om mechanical tillage on the lower border of arable land. A small catchment area in the area of intense Chernobyl pollution has been studied, wh ere the po- sition of the lower boundary of the arable land over the past few decades coincides with the upper boundary of the side of the valley. This made it possible to trace the spatial patterns of the distribution of eroded material with stable functioning of the lynchart as an important lithodynamic boundary accumulating and redistributing the slope runoff of sediments. The determination of the volume of material coming from arable slopes was carried out using mathematical modeling of erosion based on a high-precision digital terrain model, climate data, soil erodibility and crop rotations. To assess the intensity of accumulation, 137Cs of Chernobyl origin was used as a reliable tracer. The bulk of the eroded material enters the valley network through a system of slope hollows that concentrate the slope runoff and cut through the valleys. In the areas of the valleys sides outside the runoff concentration zones, the re- deposition of the material mainly depends on the morphology of the lyncahrt, occurs locally and is associated with episodic overflows as a result of the gradual filling of the depression before the lyncart. Under existing conditions, accumulation on the sides of the valley occupies a relatively small share in the total sediment balance of the studied catchment area. Significant changes may occur due to a gradual decrease in the barrier role of the soil as a result of sediment accumulation and climatic changes that contribute to an increase in erosion rates.

The aim of the work was to evaluate the effect of shallow–water flows on the morphometric characteristics of aggre- gates of typical Сhernozems of varying degrees of erosion. A number of model erosion experiments were carried out with capillary–moistened bulk samples of the upper 10–centimeter layer of the humus horizon of typical plowed Сhernozems of the Kursk region. The control variant is a comparable sample of chernozem from a typical site of the virgin steppe Chernozem in the Central Black Earth State Natural Biosphere Reserve named after Professor
V.V. Alekhin. Morphometric parameters of soil aggregates transported by model flows with minimum, average and maximum velocity (0,3, 0,41–0,45 and 0,54–0,58 m∙s–1, respectively) were determined. It was shown that smaller aggregates have higher form factor, roundness, and a lower edge unevenness. Larger aggregates, on the contrary, are less rounded and isometric and have higher unevenness. In erosion experiments with shallow–water flows, roundness and unevenness of the aggregate surface change inversely to each other. The change in form factor and unevenness is influenced by both the degree of soil erosion and the flow rate, and these factors mutually enhance the influence of each other. Aggregate roundness is mainly influenced by the degree of soil erosion, but its effect is enhanced by the addition of a flow rate factor. Depending on the flow rate, its effect on the morphometric parameters of aggregates varies: in the area of low speeds, a rolling effect occurs, in the area of high speeds, a destructive one. The continuation and expansion of such studies will expand the understanding of the mechanisms and patterns of formation of washed soils.

Kuznetsov’s formula relates the parameters of erosion resistance and soil water stability. However, the mechanism of occurrence of these properties is different: water stability is explained by the action of intra–aggregate hydrophobic bonds in organomineral soil gels, and erosion resistance is explained by water stable aggregates and their adhesion to each other. At the same time, the nature of the interaggregate bonds that ensure erosion resistance remains unclear. The purpose of the work was to clarify the mechanism of erosion resistance of soils and compare it with the mecha- nism of formation of water stability. The work used samples of humus-accumulative soil horizons: sod-podzolic and leached chernozem. To obtain samples with the same aggregate composition, but differing in erosion resistance, it is proposed to use soil polymer ameliorants (SPM). The erosion resistance of soils was determined on a hydrolotter and the critical rate of flushing was calculated. The water stability of the soils was assessed by the blade method. The particle size in the solutions was estimated by laser diffractometry. It was found that on soils treated with SPM, the results of the tray and blade methods correlate by 99%. The high correlation suggests a common nature of intra- and interaggregate bonds. To test the role of hydrophobic interactions in the formation of aggregates resistant to water, polymers of varying degrees of hydrophobicity were added to aqueous humate solutions in a model experiment: polyethylene glycol (PEG), polyacrylamide (PAA) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). In parallel, the water stability of soils treated with PEG, PAA and PVA was evaluated. The analysis of the results showed that the greatest water stability of the aggregates was noted when the most hydrophobic polymer, polyvinyl alcohol, was added to the soil, which formed the largest particles when interacting with humate in the model experiment. These results confirm the role of hydrophobic interactions in the formation of aggregates and indicate that when selecting polymer structures, their interaction should be taken into account not with clay minerals, but with soil gels, which include clay minerals and humic substances.

The dynamics of sedimentation in the bottoms of small catchments in the forest–steppe zone of the Central Russian Upland was assessed using the soil–morphological, radiocesium and magnetic tracer methods, which made it possible to calculate the rate of soil loss 1) since 1986, 2) since 1954, 3) since the launch and active operation of the railway, 4) since the mass plowing the entire catchment area. Two groups of small dry valleys have been identified: the catchment area of the first group includes tributaries of larger dry valleys, where the average rate of loss during the agricultural period is 2,1–2,4 t∙ha-1 per year and exceeds modern ones (since 1986) by 0,6–0,7 t∙ha-1 per year. The catchments of the second group include the sources of larger valleys, where the average rate of loss during the agri- cultural period is 0,6–0,9 t∙ha-1 per year and less than modern ones (since 1986) by 0.3–0.8 t∙ha-1 per year. The max- imum rates within all catchments were observed in the period 1954–1986, which is associated with soil compaction by heavy agricultural machinery, as well as the contribution of snowmelt runoff, which was regular for this period.

The article presents an analysis of the thickness of humus horizons of chernozems and gray forest soils, measured at more than a thousand survey points in three areas with an area of about 10 thousand hectares each in the northern (Oryol region), central (Kursk region) and southern (Belgorod region) forest-steppe on the Central Russian Upland. Th e measured thicknesses of the humus horizons was compared with the modeled thicknesses. Modeling of the thickness of humus horizons was carried out based soil erosion modelling and taking into account soils development. An assessment of soil erosion rates was carried out by WaTEM/SEDEM (rainfall erosion) and State Hydrological Institute in the Larionov modifi cation (snowmelt erosion), previously verifi ed on small catchments within or in close proximity to the study sites. Land use history was reconstructed using historical maps. Th e approach made it possible to model with suffi cient accuracy the average erosion losses of soils and calculate the average current thickness of the humus horizon. The obtained results of comparisons of measured and modeled thicknesses of the humus horizon clearly indicate the signifi cant role of soil development in the formation of erosion-accumulative structures of the soil cover. Insuffi cient consideration of soil development leads to a signifi cant underestimation of the calculated thickness of the humus horizon and, as a consequence, to an overestimation of the degree of soil degradation. The rate of development of chernozems and dark gray forest soils is about 0.4 mm∙year–1, which is consistent with literature data from case studies. An increase in diff erences between the modeled and measured thicknesses of the humus layer was noted in the series: chernozem - dark gray forest soil - gray forest soil - light gray forest soil. Perhaps the plowing of gray forest soils contributes to an increase in the fl ow of dissolved humus, as well as pedoturbations, which could potentially contribute to a measurement distortion of the thickness of the humus horizon and an underestimation of the degree of degradation of the soil cover in the northern forest-steppe.

Despite the large number of diff erent anti-erosion practices used in the country, the dynamics of the areas of eroded
lands remains multidirectional and unstable. Th e goal of the work was to propose a methodological approach for semantic modeling of sustainable land management with a focus on anti-erosion measures, the methods for such modeling and land management in the areas prone to soil erosion in order to maintain and restore degraded lands. A variety of erosion control techniques, methods, approaches, technologies and activities described in diff erent sources, including databases on best practices, educational and scientifi c literature serves as objects of the study. Th e study was based on the integration of several working hypotheses and approaches proposed by the authors in earlier publications. Th e methodological basis of these approaches is the concept of land degradation neutrality (LDN) and the principles for assessing the «sustainability» of environmental management based on it. Using the example of several sites, methods for semantic modeling of the sustainability of anti-erosion land management are considered. These methods are based on assessing the achievement of LDN using the so-called «good» practices. For the assessment, the following parameters of the model were applied: «natural potential» (refl ecting resource potential, adaptive potential and the ability to self-recovery of land), «expanded potential» (refl ecting human improvements in natural potential and the suffi ciency of socio-economic conditions); «actual adverse impacts», including natural processes and phenomena and those caused by human impact; «potential adverse impacts», including natural and anthropogenic risks. Model parameters can be combined in the required combination and refl ect diff erent modeling tasks in order to determine the adequacy of erosion control practices, including general approaches and techniques for regional models, methods and technologies for sub-regional and local ones, specifi c activities and measures for
local models implemented for individual land plots and farms. Th e proposed method for visualizing models, based on the construction of radar diagrams, is a fl exible solution that provides opportunity to consider the suffi ciency of practices, combine them into groups, and also generalize sustainability parameters depending on the goals of modeling.

The paper presents the results of assessing the eff ect of the degree of soil erodibility on the abundance and diversity of cultivated fungi and actinomycetes in diff erent seasons of the annual cycle. The objects of the study are sod—podzolic soils (Umbric Retisols (Abruptic)) of diff erent degrees of washout, located on the slope of the southeastern exposure (Moscow region, Solnechnogorsk district), used for a long time for the cultivation of agricultural crops. The indicators of microbial abundance were determined by the cup method, identifi cation was carried out on the basis of phenotypic characters. It is shown that the decline in physical and agrochemical parameters of the soil, which is a result of erosion processes, leads to a change in microbiological parameters. A decrease in the abundance and species diversity of fungi and actinomycetes was found with an increase in the degree of soil erosion. Significant diff erences were found in the taxonomic composition of microbial communities of non-eroded and washed away soils (the Sorensen species similarity coeffi cient does not exceed 0.42 for fungi and 0.30 for actinomycetes). Taxonomic units of mycelial microorganisms have been identifi ed. Among the fungi are representatives of the species Aspergillus, Cladosporium and Scopulariopsis, among the actinomycetes are Streptomyces malachitospinus, S. candidus and Micromonospora aurantiaca.