Changes in postagricultural soils during the restoration of woody vegetation in the conditions of the south-west of the Leningrad Region

Due to the process of restoration of natural vegetation cover on post-agrogenic territories, changes occur in the ecological functions of soil and in the soil formation process, which in turn lead to evolutionary changes in the entire soil complex. The paper considers the relationship between the early stages of tree and shrub vegetationregeneration on fallow lands and the agrochemical state of the soil complex under them. The objects are united by similar soil and ground conditions, located in Leningrad region, Russia. The series of experiments had time periods of stopping use under arable land at 5, 10 and 25 years. Vegetation taxation was carried out and soil samples were collected with following agrochemical analyses. Experimental plots were also plotted to detect microbiological activity and soil respiration. The results of the study showed that on the experimental sites soils regardless of the fallow period are characterized by acidic reaction of the environment (medium and strongly acidic). With the increase of fallow period on the studied plots there is a decrease in the content of mobile phosphorus (on plots with fallow period of 5 and 10 years the content is high, and on plots with fallow period of 25 years it is low). With the increase of fallow period there is a decrease in the number of correlations between agrochemical soil indicators, but the share of statistically reliable relationships increases, indicating stabilization of natural processes occurring in the soil complex, which were disturbed by regular plowing. In the process of restoration succession on post-agrogenic territories changes in the process of humus accumulation occur - the direction of the process changes from increase of humus with increase of pH value on the plot with fallow land of 5 years, to decrease of humus with increase of pH value on the plot with fallow land of 25 years. The activity of soil micromycetes decreases with increasing fallow period and the influence of soil bacteria increases. The processes occurring in the soil complex on lands withdrawn from active agricultural use require additional close study in order to develop further recommendations for their management.

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