Abstract
Unique experiments performed since the 1950s at the Arshan’-Zel’men Experimental Station have formed the basis for afforestation in the dry steppe and semidesert zone without irrigation on the salt-affected soils of solonetzic soil complexes of the Ergeni Upland. Ameliorative measures favored the accumulation of productive moisture in the upper 2-m-thick soil layer, which ensured the growth of trees and the partial leaching of soluble salts to a depth of 1–1.4 m. However, no complete desalinization of the soil profiles took place. The degree of removal of exchangeable sodium from the exchange complex (soil dealkalization) was smaller. The monitoring of changes in the salt status of the soils upon agroforest reclamation was performed until the early 1980s. Our investigations of 2005–2006 showed that the soil amelioration is still in progress: the salt maximum in the profile of the solonetzes descended to a depth of 2.2 m, and the exchangeable sodium was lost from the plow layer (0–40 cm). Plowed soils between forest shelterbelts were also subjected to desalinization and dealkalization of their soil profile, though less intensely than those under the shelterbelts.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
I. N. Antipov-Karataev, Yu. A. Polyakov, A. S. Budagovskaya, K. V. Dubil’ner, K. V. Zvorykina, and A. M. Yakishina, “Southern Stationary Team,” in Proceedings of the Complex Expedition on Agroafforestation (Akad. Nauk SSSR, Moscow, 1951), pp. 36–66 [in Russian].
N. M. Zaitsev, “Water and Salt Regime of Light Chestnut Soils and Solonetzes under Protective Forest Belts on the Ergeni Upland,” in Soil-Reclamation and Ecological Conditions of Ergeni and Northwestern Caspian Lowland (Akad. Nauk SSSR, Moscow, 1961), pp. 89–138 [in Russian].
N. M. Zaitsev and K. V. Zvorykina, “Soils and Plants of the First Experimental Plot,” Tr. Inst. Lesa 28, 56–108 (1955).
S. Ya. Kraevoi, B. I. Es’kina, N. M. Zaitsev, and O. M. Varkova, “Development of Afforestation in the Ergeni,” in Agroafforestation in the Ergeni and the Caspian Lowland: Studies of the Arshan’-Zel’men Station (Akad. Nauk SSSR, Moscow, 1959), pp. 3–66 [in Russian].
S. A. Nikitin, “Some Results and Challenges of Research of the Arshan’-Zel’men Station,” in Agroafforestation in the Complexes of Light Chestnut Soils and Solonetzes of Kalmykia (Nauka, Moscow, 1972), pp. 3–24 [in Russian].
Yu. A. Polyakov and I. N. Antipov-Karataev, “Natural Conditions in the Region of the Arshan’-Zel’men Station,” Tr. Inst. Lesa 28, 5–54 (1955).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Original Russian Text © A.F. Novikova, M.V. Gabchenko, V.P. Bespalov, 2009, published in Pochvovedenie, 2009, No. 4, pp. 391–402.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Novikova, A.F., Gabchenko, M.V. & Bespalov, V.P. Changes in the salinity of solonetzic soil complexes of the Ergeni Upland under long-term anthropogenic impact (soil studies at the Arshan’-Zel’men Experimental Station of the Russian Academy of Sciences). Eurasian Soil Sc. 42, 357–368 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1064229309040024
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1064229309040024