Transformation of forest soils in Iowa (United States) under the impact of long-term agricultural development.

摘要

The evolution of automorphic cultivated soils of the Fayette series (the order of Alfisols) - close analogues of gray forest soils in the European part of Russia - was studied by the method of agrosoil chronosequences in the lower reaches of the Iowa River. It was found that the old-arable soils are characterized by an increase in the thickness of humus horizons and better aggregation; they are subjected to active biogenic turbation by rodents; some alkalization of the soil reaction and an increase in the sum of exchangeable bases also take place. These features are developed against the background of active eluvial-illuvial differentiation and gleyzation of the soil profiles under conditions of a relatively wet climate typical of the ecotone between the zones of prairies and broadleaved forests in the northeast Central Plains of the United States.Notes Translated from Pochvovedenie (2012) 4, 408-420 (Ru).