Influence of climate and land use changes on recent trends of soil erosion rates within the Russian Plain

Abstract

The Russian Plain (within the Russian Federation) occupies an area of approximately 3.5 × 106 km2. Water erosion is the main land degradation factor within the Russian Plain. Previous quantitative assessments of erosion rates for the entire area of the Russian Plain were undertaken in the 1980s. The application of erosion models and analysis of different factor dynamics allow for the evaluation of the mean annual total soil losses and erosion rates for the post‐Union of Soviet Socialist Republics period, as well as the determination of the trends of erosion rates and soil losses for different landscape zones, for 1980 and 2012. The significant reductions of cultivated land area in all of the landscape zones after 1991 are the main reason behind the 46% reduction in the total annual soil losses in 2012 compared with 1980. The most significant decrease in the soil erosion rate for cultivated lands (from 7.3 Mg ha−1 yr−1 in 1980 to 4.1 Mg ha−1 yr−1 in 2012) was identified in the forest zone of the Russian Plain. Soil erosion rates slightly decreased in the forest‐steppe zone and increased in the steppe zone (from 3.9 to 4.6 Mg ha−1 yr−1). We attribute the decreasing erosion rates in the forest and forest‐steppe zones to the reduction of surface runoff during snowmelt. The increased use of perennial grasses in crop rotations promoted the reduction of erosion rates in the forest zone. The increasing erosion rates in the steppe zone were attributed to the increasing frequency of heavy rainstorms.

GUEST EDITORIAL—SPECIAL ISSUE: Mapping and modelling soil erosion to address societal challenges in a changing world

“…González‐Arqueros, Navarrete‐Segueda, and Mendoza (2018) and Kijowska‐Strugała, Bucała‐Hrabia, and Demczuk (2018) applied modelling and statistical approaches in the Teotihuacan and Aztec Periods in Mexico, and the last 160 years in the Polish Carpathians, respectively, and found soil erosion to be more related to landuse than to climate changes. Golosov et al (2018) modelled run‐off and snow‐melt erosion, recognized abandonment of agricultural land to be responsible for decreased erosion rates in the last 30 years in the Russian plains, and suggested that snow‐melt erosion is influenced by changing winter air temperature patterns.…”

Changes in the Regime of Erosive Precipitation on the European Part of Russia for the Period 1966–2020

“…The average soil erosion rate on the arable land in the territory studied amounts to 4.04 t ha −1 yr −1 , considering the soil-protective coefficients of crops. In the annual soil loss by erosion, storm runoff erosion prevails at 3.78 t ha −1 yr −1 and the erosion by snowmelt is considerably lower at only 0.26 t ha −1 yr −1 [30,31].…”

Экономическая Оценка Восстановления И Увеличения Эффективности Использования Сельскохозяйственных Земель

“…В основном это связано с тем, что в России низкий уровень водной эрозии почв, а также трансформации естественных ландшафтов под пашню. Это совпадает со многими современными оценками российских ученых, которые фиксируют снижение текущего уровня эрозии на возделываемой пашне по сравнению с 1980-ми годами [13][14][15]. Однако выбор дальнейших путей развития нуждается в определении конкретных регионально (или даже локально) специфических стоимостных оценок эффективности использования сельскохозяйственных земель.…”