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THE INFLUENCE OF HUMAN ACTIVITY ON THE EVOLUTION OF MAIN FEATURES OF PRELUVISOIL FROM NORTHERN ZONE OF DOLJ DISTRCT - ROMANIA

Cristian Popescu, Stefan Marin

Abstract

The Dolj District is located on Oltenia Plain in the southern part of Getic Plateau. The studied territory which is the northern part of Dolj District is located on the central zone of Oltenia on the high plateau Leu-Rotunda. This area is characterized by varied natural conditions and so is the formation phenomenon of soil. As a result of soil formation factors, within the northern part of Dolj District there were formed soils that have as specific horizon the clayey one, the most encountered being preluvisoils. The influence of human activity on soil formation is diverse. This way, by changing the usage of the land from forest to pasture, from pasture to arable the soil formation is highly influenced and the evolution of the soil main physical, chemical and morphological features is obvious. In order to highlight the anthropic factor on the evolution of the main features of the preluvisoil there were taken in study, within the researched area, three soil profiles made under forestry vegetation, under pasture vegetation and on arable land. After the analysis of data from field and laboratory analyses there were observed evident modifications of features of the preluvisoil used as arable in comparison with the ones evolved in natural conditions. Morphologically, with the cropped land the bio accumulation horizon is Ao, with a smaller development (35 cm) in comparison with the Am horizon evolved under woody and herbaceous vegetation, where the thickness of this horizon is obviously higher, reaching 47 cm, respectively, 57 cm. The first horizons recorded evident modifications of the main features of these soils. The soil density and the bulk density have higher values with the arable land in comparison with the soils evolved under natural vegetation. The total porosity and air porosity decrease with the arable land, while the penetration resistance is higher in comparison with the other two soils that were researched. Same modifications are recorded with the studied soils as a result of cropping as regard the water permeability which records reduced values with the cropped land as compared with the soils evolved under natural vegetation excepting the shallow horizon which is worked by tillage. The chemical features are, also, influenced by human activity. This way, while the organic matter with the soils evolved under natural vegetation is over 5%, with the cropped land this content is under 3%. With all three analyzed soils the density, the bulk density, the porosity, the penetration resistance and water permeability have closed values with lower horizons which demonstrates that the human activity influence has influenced only the shallow horizons of the soil profile.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgem2017/32/s13.080

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