2016,    N 2 (24)    

ECOLOGY

Devjatova T., Mozolevsky I.

The agrochemical and biological characteristics of the soil of the Oka-Don plain forest-steppe in the area of nickel mining

The key index of the ecological condition of the environment is the condition of soil and top-soil. Long-term research proved the leading role of the fermentative activity indices of soil in the evaluation of its ecological condition. The fermentative activity (urease, phosphatase, invertase, catalase) of the soil of the landscape catena located in the Southern Bityug-Khopyor ecological geographic area of the Oka-Don plain forest-steppe province within the watershed of the Savala and the Yelan rivers (an area of copper and nickel deposit). A contrastive analysis of the activity of the soil ferments in the predominant terrain types was made. The landscape structure of the area under study is divided into 3 groups: the slope terrain type (40%), the upland terrain type (30%), the floodplain and above floodplain terraced terrain type (30%). The obtained data showed that the upland terrain type which is characterized by high fermentative activity of soil is the most ecologically stable. The slope terrain type can be characterized as relatively stable. The soil of the floodplain and above floodplain terraced terrain type is characterized by low indices of fermentative activity and hence low ecological stability.

Keywords: FERMENTATIVE ACTIVITY, UREASE, PHOSPHATASE, INVERTASE, CATALASE, ECOLOGICAL STABILITY, TERRAIN TYPE, PPK