Effect of Agrobiological Melioration on the Salt Profile of Alkali Soil in Eastern Baraba District

Abstract

The solonetz soil cover 21.7 % of Novosibirsk Region, or 3 686.2 thousand hectares. In the Barabinsk lowland and northern Kulunda, solonetz soil is seen as agricultural land, as it doesn’t make solid massifs, but occur as small spots among zonal soils (black soils, meadow-black soils and black earth-meadow soils). Regardless the vast area, solonetz soils fulfil 20 - 25 % only of the needs of the livestock industry, which is caused by low productivity in the natural state (1.0 - 3.0 c/ha of dry matter in the steppe and 3.0 - 5.0 c/ha in the forest steppe). The authors outline the necessity to increase solonetz complexes fertility and therefore improve precision technologies of farming based on various methods of land reclamation such as chemical, agrotechnical and phytomelioration with adaptive-landscape farming systems that preserve soil fertility and crop yields. Agrobiological reclamation is based on layer-by-layer soil treatment performed once per rotation. This treatment includes milling or distillation of the upper solonetz layer with further deep nonmoldboard loosening, as well as application of dry resistant, salt resistant and solonetz resistant annual and perennial grasses into the crop rotation. These grasses extract easily soluble salts and ash elements from the soil. The research results show the effect of agrobiological melioration on solonetz soils of the Barabinsk lowland. The authors observed the decrease in the number of salts in the soil profile. Particularly, the number of carbonates and hydrocarbons decreased; that indicates slight effect of soda in the soil formation. The researchers observed variation in pH from 9.1 (in virgin variant) to 8.1 – 8.5 influenced by reclamation. Graded tillage and phytomeliorants applied in the crop rotation resulted in higher fertility of saline soils and their chemical parameters equal to the values of zone soil.