Zharikova Y.A.
Вестник Алтайского государственного аграрного университета 2018; (9): 80-86
The research findings on the current agro-ecological state of meadow gley soils are discussed. These soils are distributed on the Prikhankayskaya plain and Shkotov plateau and widely used in agriculture that includes rice cultivation. Large areas have been transferred into idle lands. The soils are formed under reed grass-and-motley grass and motley grass-and-sedge meadows on heavy lake and alluvial sediments on flat late quaternary alluvial terraces under the conditions of sustained or long-term surface-soil over-moistening. The peculiarity of agrogenic meadow gley soils is the duality of the profile, the upper horizon always has a lighter particle-size composition, the lower horizons are heavy, the content of the fraction <0.01 mm in there may exceed 70%. The reaction is slightly acidic and neutral, the humus content is lower than an average, the content of total phosphorus is high and that of the content of mobile phosphorus is very low, the content of total potassium is moderate and the content of exchange potassium is high in arable soil. Idle land areas are characterized by a medium-acidic reaction, average humus content, and lower values of the degree of base saturation. The content of heavy metals in the surface layer of the soil is small, excess of maximum allowable concentration is not observed. The highest content of Cd and the lowest content of Mn were found in the soils under rice and soybean; the content of Ni and Cu was minimal in idle lands. The comparison with previously published data showed that in the arable layer of the soil there was a decrease in acidity and an increase in the content of exchangeable cations probably as a result of intensive liming, while the content of humus and mobile phosphorus decreased. The geochemical feature of the soils of the studied area is low availability of Cu and Zn with increased Cd content.
