Scholarly record

PEDO-HYDROLOGICAL CONSTRAINTS AND SOIL DIVERSITY IN THE BANAT HIGH PLAINS (WESTERN ROMANIA): SECTORAL PATTERNS AND LAND-MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS

Lucian NITA, Florin Crista, Simona Nita, Alina Lato, Ilinca Imbrea

Abstract

West Romania Banat high plains in the Pannonian Basin are low slope and wet. Block subsidence, loess, and river lake beds built a wide glacis belt cut by marshy vales. We mapped soils and limits in six plains from Vinga and the Bega Timis gulf to Gataia Tormac Moravita and Buzias Timis, 43 cadastral units, 346000 ha farm. Data follow Romanian soil taxonomy 2012 and were joined with relief from a digital elevation model, sediment maps, canal and dike maps, and climate means at Arad and Timisoara (T 10.4–10.8C; P 594–602mm). We summed each sector to rate soil groups and key limits: ponding, shallow groundwater, salinity and sodicity, acidity, compaction, and summer dry. Chernozems peak in Vinga Bega Timis (24.8%); Luvisols lead south and east (36.8–43.7%). Surface wet hits 58%, groundwater 35%, and compaction 88–92% in two sectors. Severe salinity is 45–47% in hot spots; acidity is 24–40%. Groundwater is near 0–2 m in low swales but 5–15 m on the high plain; clay lenses and salt beds slow in-soil flow. In wet spring this cuts access; in dry July–Aug it limits roots and yield. Site rules should guide crop choice, drain care, and input rates. Thus fine scale plans can stabilise yields.

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