The assessment of soil and land degradation in Volgograd region, the case of agricultural farm Donskoe

• Published in: IOP conference series. Earth and environmental science Vol. 862; no. 1; pp. 12100 - 12106
• Main Authors: Kriuchkov, N R, Makarov, O A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bristol IOP Publishing 01.10.2021
• Subjects: Agricultural land; Agricultural resources; Arsenic; Farms; Heavy metals; Land degradation; Land use; Metal concentrations; Phosphorus; Physical analysis; Potassium; Salts; Soil degradation; Soil properties; Soils
• ISSN: 1755-1307; 1755-1315
• DOI: 10.1088/1755-1315/862/1/012100

This study is aimed at assessing soil and land degradation of agricultural farmlands of Kalachev district, Volgograd region. To identify the level of land degradation, soil properties of samples taken in summer 2019 in that area were compared with average values for the same area obtained by YUZHGIPROZEM in 1982 [1]. The calculations to evaluate land degradation were based on “Methodology for determine the extent of damage of soil and land degradation” [2]. The conducted chemical and physical analysis of sampled soils demonstrated the highest level of land degradation in that area. The soils were proven to have an increase in exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP); 52% of the agricultural lands of Donskoe demonstrated these values. The assessment of the other land degradation parameters such as density, mobile phosphorus, exchange potassium, heavy metals concentration and arsenic content, toxic salts and pH (H2O) revealed lower level of degradation and insignificant occurrence in the farmland territory.