The modern state of the soil cover of the Transcarpathian lowland: diversity, properties and development dynamics of natural and anthropogenic soils
Authors: Vovk Oksana , Orlov Oleg 
Published: December 2024

The regularities and peculiarities of the modern state of the soils of the floodplain complexes of the Transcarpathian lowland under the influence of natural and anthropogenic factors were investigated. Prognostic modeling of the dynamics of the further development of soils and soil cover in the region was carried out. It was established that a significant mosaic in space and dynamism characterize the soil cover of floodplains in time. Alluvial, semi-hydromorphic, and hydromorphic soils dominate the flood plains of Transcarpathian rivers. Alluvial soils were the dominant types in the pre-anthropogenic period. They develop in conditions of constant soil ground water level and periodic surface flooding by floodwaters. Alluvial sediment (silt) remains on the surface after the subsidence of flood waters and has a significant impact on the properties, morphology, lithology and fertility of soils. The high content of dusty ground particles in all variants of river silt ensures their rapid inclusion in the process of soil formation and contributes to the improvement of water-physical and physic-chemical properties of alluvial soils. First of all, alluvial soils significantly suffer from anthropogenic interference in the course of flood processes undergo critical changes in water-physical and physic-chemical properties. After the improve of melioration measures that regulate the flood regime in floodplains, significant areas of soil lose alluvial features and later develop as semi-hydromorphic or hygromorphic. Drainage melioration, depending on the further direction of soil-forming processes, can have completely different effects on soil properties. Therefore, it is necessary to approach melioration measures very carefully, foreseeing in advance all the consequences, which may occur on drained territories. The possible profit from the involvement to agricultural production of drained areas can be incomparably smaller, compared to the losses for maintaining the normal functioning of not only these areas, but also the territories adjacent to them. The secondary anthropogenic load is often imposed on the primary hydrotechnical and reclamation soil transformation due to the active agricultural use of drained floodplains. Depending on the duration and method of agricultural production, soils that were formed as alluvial acquire new properties, different from natural ones. Their soil density and soil hardness increase, the water-air regime is disrupted, and their physical and chemical properties change. Deeply drained and additionally changed by technical means, the soils of the hydromorphic range, after the abandonment of resource-consuming extensive production, are left for natural self-recovery, and the further course of soil restoration processes requires careful study and control by scientists. A mosaic natural-anthropogenic soil cover of the alluvial lowland was formed under the combined effect of natural and anthropogenic processes, so alluvial soils need the greatest protection and protection in fact. Such soils are part of unique floodplain complexes, the study, preservation and protection of which should be the primary focus of both scientists and environmentalists.