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Contemporary Trend in Erosion of Arable Ordinary Chernozems (Haplic Chernozems (Pachic)) within the Volga Upland (Saratov Oblast, Russia)

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Abstract

The current trend in erosion rate of ordinary chernozems in Saratov oblast has been assessed. Detailed studies have been performed in a small catchment area of the Bolshoi Kolyshley River (Medveditsa River basin) using the radiocesium and soil-morphological methods. Data of long-term hydrometeorological observations in the region, reported results of observations of water runoff and soil loss on the runoff plots of the South-Eastern Research Institute of Agriculture (Saratov oblast), results of analysis of the grain size and mineral composition of stratozems developed on the catchment valley bottom were also used for analysis. The quantification of sedimentation rate in the valley bottom during two time windows (1963–1986 and 1986–2017) based on the sediment dating using 137Cs as a chronomarker indicates their decrease at least in 4–6 times after 1986, which points to a proportional reduction in erosion rate on the plowed slopes of the catchment area. The analysis of the temporal variability of suspended yields in the regional rivers (Medveditsa and Khopyor) during the period from 1940 to the present time allows us to draw an analogous conclusion for the Volga Upland within Saratov oblast. The decrease in the erosion rate of ordinary chernozems could be mainly caused by the reduction in water runoff from slopes during the spring snowmelt because of reduction in soil freezing depth against the background of rising air temperature in winter and spring. This decrease in erosion rate during the snowmelt period was not balanced by the regional increase in rainfall erosion related to some increase in the rate of runoff-forming rainfalls. In the part of Saratov oblast, located within the Volga Upland, where the studied catchment is situated, on the contrary, even a reduction in the frequency of rains with a rainfall depth of more than 30 mm occurred over the last decades. The reduction in the cultivated land area since the late 1980s because of the abandonment of plowlands on the steepest slopes also contributed to the decrease in total soil loss by erosion at the river basin scale. Within the studied small catchment, the share of perennial grasses in crop rotations increased after 1986, which also led to reduction of the rate of erosion of ordinary chernozems.

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Notes

  1. In 2012–2016, the crop structure in the Atkarskii district of Saratov oblast was as follows: cereal and pulse crops (wheat, oat, corn, etc.), 53%; technical crops and vegetables (sunflower, camelina, potato), 41%; forage crops, 5%; and other crops and fallows, 1% [24].

  2. The increase in the low-water runoff in the river is hard to be largely explained by an increase in the amount of atmospheric precipitation in the river basin. For summer precipitation, its total decrease was even noted for the last 50 years.

  3. From the satellite images of the area with the studied catchment, crops were gotten there in the early or middle August until the early 1990s. Before 1986, the average monthly precipitation ≥30 mm was maximum in this month and showed a tendency of the most pronounced decrease. This fact could favor an additional decrease in the soil loss rate (along with that in spring). Since the early 1990s, harvesting has already been operated in early September, when a significant increase in precipitation was observed. This fact, on the contrary, could slightly enhance soil erosion in fall.

  4. Generally, high η values in the Medveditsa River compared to the Khopyor River indicate a higher agrogenic erosion of soils in the former river basin, although both basins occur under almost similar climatic conditions and the mean long-term annual water runoff depth in the Medveditsa River basin is even lower than in the Khopyor River basin. The large sediment yield in the Medveditsa River (12.6 t/(km2 year) in 1950–1975 and 4.3 t/(km2 year) in 2008–2015) is also favored by the predominance of better erodible loessial deposits of the Late Pliocene on the left part of the basin, while less erodible loamy–loamy sandy deposits of the Early Eopleistocene prevail on the right part of the Medveditsa River basin and in the Khopyor basin (6–8 t/(km2 year) in 1950–1975 and 1.3–1.8 t/(km2 year) in 2008–2015) [14].

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank A.Z. Satdarov, A.M. Gafurov, and R.A. Medvedeva (PhD students, Kazan Federal University) for assistance in summer fieldwork in 2017.

The work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, project 15-17-20006.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Environmental Sciences, Kazan Federal University, 420008, Kazan, Russia

    A. V. Gusarov, A. G. Sharifullin & V. N. Golosov

  2. Faculty of Geography, Moscow State University, 119991, Moscow, Russia

    V. N. Golosov

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  1. A. V. Gusarov
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Correspondence to A. V. Gusarov.

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Translated by K. Pankratova

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Gusarov, A.V., Sharifullin, A.G. & Golosov, V.N. Contemporary Trend in Erosion of Arable Ordinary Chernozems (Haplic Chernozems (Pachic)) within the Volga Upland (Saratov Oblast, Russia). Eurasian Soil Sc. 51, 1514–1532 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1064229318120049

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