Morphological diversity of chernozemic soils in south-western Poland

Abstract

Diverse chernozemic soils featured by thick mollic horizon, rich in humus, dark-coloured, structural, and saturated with base cations are relatively common in the loess-belt of SW Poland. It is postulated, that most of these soils may have similar initial (chernozemic) history of thick humus horizon, related to climate conditions and vegetation in the Late Pleistocene and the Neolithic periods. However, these soils exist on various bedrocks and under different moisture conditions that led to the development accompanying features and variable classification of soils, both in Polish and international soil classifications. The aim of the paper is to presents the most important variants of loess-derived chernozemic soils of SW Poland, in relation to local conditions, which influenced soil transformation and present spatial diversification. ‘Typical’ chernozems (WRB: Calcic Chernozems), which have a mollic horizon and secondary carbonates, but are free of strong redoximorphic features, are rather uncommon in the region. Whereas, the black earths (WRB: Gleyic/Stagnic Chernozems/Phaeozems), featured by the presence of mollic horizon and strong gleyic or stagnic properties in the middle and bottom parts of the profiles, are predominant loess-derived chernozemic soils in SW Poland. Their most specific forms, developed on the clayey bedrock, are black earths with a vertic horizon (WRB: Vertic Stagnic Phaeozems). The strongly leached chernozemic soils developed over permeable subsoils, lacking carbonates and free of (strongly developed) stagnic/gleyic properties are called grey soils, often featured by the presence of subsurface diagnostic horizons cambic or luvic (WRB: Cambic/Luvic Phaeozems).

Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy Supports Identification of the Origin of Organic Matter in Soils

“…This result suggests possible influences from the other physicochemical soil components important for pedogenic processes, such as carbonates and clay minerals [39]. However, the placement of some samples indicated the soil transformation (analyzed as the change from the bottom towards topsoil layers of the buried soil) from Chernozem through Phaeozem towards Luvisol (kurgan K3) and from Phaeozem towards Luvisol (kurgans K1 and K2), which is consistent with opinions regarding the transformations of chernozemic soils during the Holocene period [19,29,40,41]. Clear discrimination of the topsoil horizons of modern soils into non-overlapping classes referring to the land use and soil type has confirmed the potential of non-destructive spectroscopic methods in paleopedological studies.…”

“…The simple relationship of an origination of Chernozems and the presence of steppe vegetation and continental climate in Central Europe was recently questioned due to paleobotanic studies, which demonstrated the predominance of forest vegetation and strong human impacts during the Holocene. However, the other findings suggested that the early removal of forests and the expansion of pastures and arable lands since the Neolithic period could preserve or even restore some of these soils [28,29,36,37]. The determination of organic matter was successfully conducted by [19] in some buried Central European Chernozems using NIR spectroscopy.…”

“…An estimation of SOC content allowed us to verify the correct selection of samples because it is recommended to build the spectral library using samples containing at least 0.3% SOC [19]. Before spectral measure- As a testing material for the created statistical model, three buried soils from SW Poland were chosen from the barrows (kurgans) of the Funnel Beaker culture formed during the Neolithic period [29][30][31][32]. All buried soils were covered by a thick overlying barrow mound (up to 100 cm), which has preserved their humus horizons from transformation into Luvisols that naturally occurred in a direct surrounding of the kurgans.…”

Soil organic carbon and its labile fractions in the conditions of water erosion on arable land of Chernozems area

“…The soil thickness was the highest in the depressed positions, and, on the contrary, the soil was the shallowest on the slopes with a more pronounced inclination, which are the initial manifestations of water erosion that, in this case, also lead to the mosaic-like discontinuity of the soil cover of original chernozems (Labaz et al 2019). In addition to the HC, ER was https://doi.org/10.17221/3/2024-SWR also at the monitored sites, and, simultaneously, Colluvisol was also identified in the accumulation zones.…”

Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Cultivation of Plants Used for Biofuel Production in Poland

“…On the basis of the analysis of the spatial distribution of the index of agricultural valorisation of production space in Poland, taking soil quality, agroclimate, relief, and water conditions into account [12,13], it was found that the farms in Banie and Swobnica have excellent conditions ( Figure 1). The decisive factor is constituted by soils, partially included in the so-called Pyrzyce black earths, which are among the most fertile in Poland [14,15]. The other two farms in the Gryfino district are characterized by very good conditions.…”