Sediment origin and pedogenesis in the former mill pond basin of Turznice (north-central Poland) based on magnetic susceptibility measurements

Abstract

Abstract. This paper aims to assess the usefulness of magnetic susceptibility measurements in pedological studies of mill pond sediments. The study area includes the former Turznice mill pond basin located in the south-eastern part of the Grudziądz Basin. Four soil profiles were selected within the transect located along the longitudinal axis of the basin. The following soil properties were determined in the collected samples: bulk density, particle size distribution, pH, content of carbonates, approximate content of organic matter (LOI), total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (Nt), and the pseudo-total contents of metals (Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, Pb, Ni, Cd). The obtained results were correlated with the specific (mass) magnetic susceptibility (χ). This study revealed that the variability of the soil cover in the basin was driven by different sedimentation conditions. The different composition of natural terrace deposits versus mill pond sediments has been well reflected in the magnetic properties. However, the possibility cannot be excluded that a pedogenic (gleyic) process is the key factor causing the vertical variability of magnetic properties in studied soils.Sediment origin and pedogenesis in the former mill pond basin of Turznice (north-central Poland) based on magnetic susceptibility measurements

Human activity in the surroundings of a former mill pond (Turznice, N Poland): implications for soil classification and environmental hazard assessment

“…Another explanation is the human induced deposition of sediments as result to the possible dredging of mill pond basin. This scenario could be explained with similar content of these elements determined in the upper part of the soil profiles developed from mill pond sediments, as reported by Mendyk et al (2016a). The results clearly demonstrate weak anthropogenic impact on the upper parts of the studied soil profiles.…”

“…Potential toxic element content (Cu, Zn, Pb, Ni, Cr, Cd) was several times lower than that observed in soil samples collected from soil developed within the mill pond basin (Mendyk et al, 2016a), except for chromium, whose content was not analysed in the mentioned study. Studied soils are characterized which much lower content of heavy metals comparing to the floodplain soils of the Grudziądz Basin (Kobierski, 2015).…”

“…It was developed from terrace sand, which is the main parent material for undisturbed soils occurring in the close surroundings of the study site. The texture of these sands (Table 1) strongly corresponds with bottom parts of the soil profiles located within the former mill pond, which are assumed as natural deposits relining the deposits accumu-lated in the pond while the mill was in operation (Mendyk et al, 2016a). The morphology of this pedon nevertheless shows some anthropogenic impact.…”

“…Kittel et al, 2014;Royall and Kennedy, 2016;Fajer and Rzętała, 2017), in the last few years former mill ponds have been gaining interest among soil scientists (e.g. Jonczak and Florek, 2013;Jonczak, 2015;Mendyk et al, 2015;Mendyk et al, 2016a) but there is still a need to study human impact on the evolution of soil cover around former mill ponds.…”

Effect of Peatland Siltation on Total and Labile C, N, P and K

“…Peatlands have been drained by humans for hundreds of years to gain material to heat their homes or to gain fertile land for agricultural or horticultural production. Draining the soil in order to make it suitable for agricultural production leads to physico-chemical changes of peat, decomposition of plant material and transformation of soil organic compounds during the mursh-forming process [3,[22][23][24][25]. During the decomposition of organic material, nutrients are transformed into mobile forms, which can be easily leached and contaminate the ecosystem or can become a source of GHGs in the atmosphere.…”