Open AccessTopsoil bulk density of abandoned rural settlements of the Russian boreal zone
Author(s) -
И.А. Мартыненко,
Joulia Meshalkina,
N. Yu. Goncharuk,
М. А. Бутылкина,
G. S. Bykova
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
iop conference series. earth and environmental science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.179
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1755-1307
pISSN - 1755-1315
DOI - 10.1088/1755-1315/368/1/012032
Subject(s) - topsoil , bulk density , arable land , subsoil , environmental science , human settlement , boreal , geography , soil science , soil water , agriculture , archaeology
The topsoil bulk density of two abandoned small rural settlements situated at Tver and Yaroslavl regions of Russia was studied. The key sites had light grain soil texture. They had a long history of rural land use, and they were abandoned simultaneously. There were no stone buildings. The values of the abandoned rural settlements’ topsoil bulk density are correlated with the land use type and the time of reforestation. The topsoil bulk density of the former buildings and the dirt roads was significantly higher than the one of the plough horizons of the former gardens, orchards and arable lands (1.7 and 1.4 g/cm 3 , respectively). Soil horizons of former buildings’ territory are characterized by coarser granulometric composition of fine-grained fraction; however, they do not differ from plough horizons in bulk density that may be related to 2-3 times higher organic carbon content.