INFLUENCE OF THE PYROGENIC FACTOR ON THE SOIL COVER OF THE ENATAEVSK DISTRICT OF THE ASTRAKHAN REGION

Yakovleva Lyudmila V.  -  D. Sc. (Biology), Associate Professor, Head of the Department of biotechnology, aquaculture, soil science and land management, Astrakhan State University named by V.N. Tatischev, Russia, 414000, Astrakhan, Shaumyana Str., 1, yakovleva_lyudmi@mail.ru

Danchenko Ivan А.  -  laboratory assistant-researcher of the Laboratory for forecasting the bio-productivity of Agroforestry Landscapes, Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution “Federal Scientific Center for Agroecology, Integrated Reclamation and Protective Forestry of the Russian Academy of Sciences” (FSC Agroecology RAS), 400062, Russia, Volgograd, Universitetsky Prospekt, 97, danchenko-i@vfanc.ru

As a result of natural fires, the soil cover suffers along with flora and fauna. The soil, as a constantly developing bio-inert substance, needs constant replenishment, and due to pyrogenic activity and burnout of the vegetation cover, it loses the main source of material for its self-development. Post-fire changes in soil properties occur due to the rapid mineralization of its organic part, the resulting products are partially absorbed by plants through the roots, and partially, in the form of dissolution of compounds, they are leached into the soil, leaving the rhizosphere, or washed out of the area by surface runoff waters. The paper presents the results of a study of post-pyrogenic changes in brown semi-desert soils in the Astrakhan region. The elemental analysis of the upper soil horizons showed that steppe fires enrich the soil with ash nutrients, but lead to destabilization of the soil organic matter system.

Key words: steppe fires, soil pyrogenesis, humus, mobile phosphorus, exchangeable potassium