EURO-ECO 2009 Hanover 3 - 4 Dezember 2009	Environmental, Engineering - Economic and Legal Aspects for Sustainable Living
	European Academy of Natural Sciences, Hanover European Scientific Society, Hanover University of Bremen, Bremen

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Abstracts EURO-ECO 2009

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Tatyana D. Strelnikova

Soil is an almost non-renewable natural resource. Its depletion means loss of fertility as a result of both the decrease of the number of nutrients and the destruction of soil structure.

The reason for soil depletion is ill-conceived economic activity, as well as some other activities. The present condition of the soil mantle in Russia is unsatisfactory and continues to deteriorate. This is shown in official data: 40 million ha are represented by low fertile saline and solonetz soils, 26 million ha are overwetted and bogged, 5 million ha are polluted with radioactive nuclides, 60 million ha of 186 million ha of agricultural land are eroded, desertification is typical for some southern regions of Russia.

Analyzing the structural changes in the supply of land in the Lipetsk region for the past 5 years it has been noted that the area of land has decreased inconsiderably, while the area of tilled land has decreased by 68,000 ha. Of the latter quantity 63,000 ha of tilled land with low productivity are now considered as meadowlands and perennial planting, according to the results of the research. It is the result of the negative processes which deteriorate the characteristics of soil: erosion, dehumufication, acidification, salination, underflooding, etc. As a result, soils do not perform their functions anymore.

Soil erosion processes top the list of the negative influences hindering the intensive agricultural production in the Lipetsk region. It is explained by a high percentage of tilled land (80.0%), separation of the surface by numerous ravines and river valleys, and a slope type of terrain, especially on the right bank of the Don and in the Don-Vorohezh interfluve.

The formation of antropogenous landscapes in the region is characterized by a number of tendencies: 1) the percentage of tilled land is the highest in the Central-chernozem economic region; 2) the area of tilled land is decreasing; 3) soil fertility is decreasing; 4) ravine formation continues; 5) productivity of pastures is decreasing despite a sharp increase in their area; 6) hayfield areas are decreasing; 7) percentage of forest land is decreasing and may well reach the level of 1914 (7.5%); 8) water resources landscapes (ponds and reservoirs) do not always perform their function, which enhances their negative influence on the environment in several districts of the region; 9) landscapes bear recreational load, which tells negatively on the condition of suburban forests; 10) the region does not have a system of the formation of recreational complexes; 11) industrial landscape areas are growing; 12) cities continue to grow; 13) urban population is growing; 14) transport landscape areas are growing.

Bearing in mind the above, it is time not only to guard soil and land resources in the region, but to select certain soil areas as nature reserves. The fact is that due to soil depletion soils turn into a non-renewable natural resource, as mineral resources. And quite soon we may not be able to have any notion of varieties of chernozem, they will be lost, as many natural objects are lost in the world.

There is still an opportunity of creating small natural reserves of benchmark chernozem soils in the Lipetsk region. These are: meadow chernozem along the rivers, especially in the north of the region; typical chernozem in the south-east; podzolized chernozem in the central part of the region, etc. These can be small territories, guarded as special natural objects with any economic activity prohibited and only scientific research allowed.

One of the main researches in these reserves would be the study of the ability of soils to reflect, encode and save in their properties the information on soil-forming factors, including anthropogenic factors. This forms the basis of the comparative and ecological approach, the essence of which is the comparison of soils formed under the influence of various combinations of soil-forming factors.

It is necessary to assess the quality of soils grounding on economic perspectives. It is necessary to acknowledge that the conceptual and mechanical interpretation of the quality of soils will vary according to the character of land use and will not always be equal for agricultural and nonagricultural systems.

Note should be made that such soils as rich soils, formerly widely spread in the region, are regarded by authors as benchmarks of vanishing soils of the region. It is the result of unpractical use of the regional supply of land which mostly consists of erosion-prone soils.

 

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