Soil-forming factors controlling Technosol formation in historical mining and metallurgical sites in the high-alpine environment of the Tatra Mountains, southern Poland

Abstract

The Tatra Mountains are a unique Central European alpine ecosystem where the non-anthropogenic soil cover and soil-forming processes are well recognized. However, the Technosols in the area’s high-mountain environment have not been studied in detail to date. Therefore the aim of this study was to identify the most important soil-forming factors controlling the properties of Technosols developed in historical mining and metallurgical sites in the Tatra Mountains of southern Poland active from the 15th Century until the end of the 19th. The present paper is one of the first attempts to study the genetic aspects of high-mountain Technosols in the temperate climatic zone. The study involved determining soil morphology and classification, soil properties, magnetic susceptibility, mineral composition, optical microscopic observations and total concentration of major elements. The studied Technosols were poorly developed soils with simple soil morphology (mainly A horizon in the topsoil and C horizons in the subsoil). There was a high content of rock fragments. The research has shown that the properties of Technosols in the Tatra Mountains were primarily determined by past human activities like mining and metallurgy as well as the type of anthropogenic parent material, which included mining wastes and metallurgical slags and determined soil properties together with mineral and chemical composition. Soil formation was significantly influenced by vegetation which was conditioned by the relief and climatic conditions dependent on altitudinal zonation. Vegetation and plant-derived soil organic matter shaped topsoil properties. The lengthy soil-forming process acting since a few centuries in some Technosols led to the formation of Bw horizons.