Home – Home – Jornals – Geography and natural resources 2016 number 5S

We investigated the influence of two anthropogenic factors, plowing and fires, on soil formation in the delta of the Selenga river along the southeastern shores of Lake Baikal. The study revealed changes in soils transitional from soddy podburs to burozems that are almost entire drawn into the agricultural turnover, occurring on sandy waterworn terraces at the foot of the Khamar-Daban Range. It is established that heavy agricultural machinery on the fields leads to soil compaction and a decrease in water permeability, and promotes the processes of soil loss and subsoil plowing in the upper part of the slope as well as the fill processes in its gentle part. As a result, the main area of tillage experiences an increase in the thickness of the humus-accumulative layer accompanied by the formation of a thick subsurface horizon. It is determined that the soils of pine forests: humic podzolized psammozems, are transformed under the influence of forest fires; characteristic features of their post-fire development are revealed. It is found that among the anthropogenic factors under investigation, crown fires have the most negative influence on the soil. Plowing and ground fires have not only negative but also positive effects: in either case, the thickness of the humus-accumulative horizons and humus reserves increase.