Study of power of humus profile of soil catens of central forest-steppe

Abstract

The article presents the result of a field study to study the power of humus profiles of gray forest soils and black soils of landowned different terms of agricultural use of soil catens of broad-leaved forest (background) and meadow-steppe sections of the Belgorod region. The work was carried out in the spring-summer period 2018-2019. The object of the study was different-age arable areas with an age of agricultural development of 100 and 160 years, respectively. The surface slope in the sections did not exceed 5-60. It was established that the power of the humus profile under the influence of agricultural processing over a 60-year period decreased by 49 cm, moreover, on the slopes of the northern exposition, this indicator is more pronounced (33 cm) than on the slopes of the southern exposition (16 cm). It can be noted that with an increase in the age of agricultural use on the slopes of the northern and southern expositions, the largest thickness of the humus horizon is observed on abnormal soils (72 and 65 cm, respectively). Within the background catens, the soil cover is homogeneous; a second humus horizon was observed in each of the studied sections.