Assessing soil quality changes after 10 years of agricultural activities in eastern Hungary*

Abstract

AbstractIn Hungary, soil plays a fundamental role in agricultural production. The main aim of this research was to track the spatial–temporal variations in certain soil properties (soil organic carbon [So], pH, NO3−, P, K, Mn, Zn and Cu) between 2000 and 2010 in 55 different farms in the eastern part of Hungary (Hajdú‐Bihar region). Soil data were collected from the Soil Conservation Information and Monitoring System. After 10 years of agricultural activities results reveal that the means of pH, So, NO3−, and Zn were higher in 2010 than in 2000. Indeed, of nine studied soil characteristics only two (So%, NO3−) showed a significant change according to the Wilcoxon T‐test. The average pH_H2O increased by 0.13 and reached 7.31 ± 0.12 in 2010. The average NO3− (ppm) increased by 4.75 ppm and reached 19.9 ppm in 2010. For other soil nutrients, available P, K and Mg decreased slightly, while Mn decreased from 269 ± 25 ppm to 236 ± 21 ppm in 2010. Interestingly, Zn and Cu showed no change between 2000 and 2010. However, the inverse distance weighting (IDW) showed that the central part of the study area is more prone to changes due to intensive agricultural activities. The output of this research could assist decision makers when making soil conservation plans within the study area.