Effects of land-use changes on soil properties based on reambulated soil profiles

Abstract

In our study, by investigating reambulated soil profiles from the Nagy-Sárrét region in Hungary, we attempt to determine the extent of changes which have occurred due to effects which impacted the landscape in terms of the soil chemistry properties of soil profiles exposed during the Kreybig soil survey more than 70 years ago. Based on the results, in the areas used as grassland, we observed a decrease in pH and an increase in the humus content of the topsoil. The increased CaCO3 following the chemical improvement of the soil which was used as cropland is still characteristic of the area. During the past decades, the investigated soils have been affected by significant changes with regard to water management, which have also modified the investigated parameters. We have classified the reambulated soil profiles among the Solonetz, Vertisol, and Gleysol reference groups based on the World Reference Base of Soil Resources (WRB) diagnostic system.

Keywords

• archive soil data
• land use changes
• kreybig
• solonetz
• vertisol
• gleysol
• wrb