Cemeteries as Indicators of Post-Settlement Anthropogenic Soil Degradation on the Atlantic Coastal Plain

Abstract

Over the past ca. 350 years, anthropogenic activities on the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain have caused considerable soil erosion and degradation due to deforestation, intensive agriculture, and poor if any soil conservation practices. Early colonial descriptions indicated rich soils suitable for agriculture supported by the rapid deforestation for cultivation. Small, undisturbed family cemeteries on the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland provided valuable markers for assessing these changes. Continued cultivation around the cemeteries has left many of them as isolated remnant knolls, elevated above the surrounding fields. Four cemetery sites were sampled in Wicomico Co., on Maryland’s Lower Eastern Shore. Topographic data for the four sites was collected using a laser-guided total station and 3-D topographic models were generated. Composite soil samples were collected from each cemetery and two locations in the adjoining field. The physical and chemical properties indicated that the cemeteries were left in situ largely undisturbed by human activities for a prolonged period. The fields surrounding the cemeteries, however, exhibited 0.43 to 0.52 m of surface soil depletion, lower organic matter, soil carbon, total nitrogen, but higher level of cations such as Ca and K, the result of liming and fertilization. Our results were consistent with our hypothesis that land clearance and farming practices have considerably eroded and altered the chemistry and structure of soils on the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland.