Variability of Soil Properties in Eroded Agricultural Landscape

Abstract

Erosion strongly influences the soil properties and affects the intra-field variation of nutrients not only in steep young morainic landscapes but also on gentle slopes of old-glacial landscapes. The aim of the study was the evaluation of changes in the plant-available nutrient contents in the complex old-glacial eroded landscape of the Bielska Plain in the northeastern part of Poland. The soil samples were collected from the soil profiles located along the transect beginning on the flat summit of the kame hummock extending through south-facing convex slope, the toeslope and footslope and further through the north-facing uniform slope. The content of plant-available forms of phosphorus (P dl) and potassium (K dl) and mineral forms of nitrogen (NH 4-N and NO 3-N) were determined in every soil profile. The soils located in various landscape positions were characterized with different fertility. In the soil located on the toeslope the content of NO 3-N, P dl and K dl was high, while the soil located on the summit was rich in NH 4-N and poor in the plant-available forms of K and P. The erosional distribution of plant-available N, P and K enhances the variation of nutrient content within one field and contributes to high variability of crops.

Mire Development and Disappearance due to River Capture as Hydrogeological and Geomorphological Consequences of LGM Ice-Marginal Valley Evolution at the Vistula-Neman Watershed

“…We also followed this definition in the study (Figure 1(6)). Other recently published papers [30,[38][39][40][41][42][43][44] indicate that kame is an isolated hill (or a plateau [29] that used to be a specific feature of the Polish lowlands landscape beyond the LGM extent (the area ice-modeled by Saalian glaciation and by older glaciations). Generally, most isolated hills located between parallel belts of end-moraines in northern and central Poland used to be called kames [45].…”