Soil loss tolerance for agricultural land of the Right-Bank Steppe of Ukraine

Abstract

The aim of the study was to develop a method of determining the soil loss tolerance for chernozem of the Right-Bank Steppe of Ukraine. The most reliable method of determining the soil loss tolerance is based on the quantitative assessment of the probable change in the productivity of chernozem under the influence of erosion for a fixed period of time. Such admissible decrease of soil productivity will be later compensated by the progress in farming at the expense of more perfect technologies of crops cultivation, fuller realization of genetic potential of agricultural plants, strengthening of soil-forming process, etc. The most accurate quantitative assessment of soil productivity is a definite integral of the distribution function of the modernized fertility index of Pierce along the soil profile. The fertility index of chernozem of the Right-bank steppe of Ukraine depends on five indicators normalized from 0 to 1: humus content, soil solution pH, bulk density, content of mobile forms of phosphorus and potassium, and weight index. Soil loss tolerance calculated for the chernozem of varies from 0.4 to 9.1 t/ha for the control period of 50 years, from 0.2 to 4.5 t/ha for the control period of 100 years, and from 0.1 to 2.3 t/ha for the control period of 200 years depending on the planned loss of productivity (from 1% to 20% of the initial value).