INFLUENCE OF AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES ON THE PROCESS OF SOIL FREEZING

Abstract

Only the change in soil temperature with time has been systematically studied on different types of soils. At the same time, many agricultural practices aim to regulate the soil’s temperature regime. Thus, snow retention and mulching with plant residues are effective measures aimed at increasing the temperature of the surface layers of the earth. In the article, the authors investigated the process of world freezing with a mulched surface under a layer of snow covered with an ice crust. Methods of theoretical analysis (structuralfunctional, systemic approach) and mathematical statistics are used. The authors conducted field studies in two versions at LLC “Plemsovkhoz” Kenzhe “of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic. The first option is bare soil, and the second option is mulched soil with the creation of an ice crust on the snow surface in winter. Studies were carried out on the influence of the mulching layer of vegetation and the ice crust on the snow surface on the annual variation in soil surface temperature and soil temperature. These study results indicate that mulching the soil surface with plant residues and creating an ice crust on the snow surface contributes to the “smoothing” of the soil temperature. So, when using the proposed technological methods, the temperature of the soil with a change in depth from 0 to 100 cm changes from 0°С to +2.5 °С, while without their use - from -3 °С to +2 °С. The authors proved that the temperature of the soil at a depth of 30 cm, when using the proposed technological methods, reaches above 0 °C. This confirms the effectiveness of these techniques in preventing dirt freezing.