Influence of relief characteristics and landscape connectivity on sediment redistribution in small agricultural catchments in the forest-steppe landscape zone of the Russian Plain within European Russia (2025)

Human-accelerated soil redistribution within an intensively cultivated dry valley catchment in southern European Russia

IAHS-AISH publication, 2005

The Stavropol Uplands is an area with some of the most severe soil erosion in European Russia. This poses serious problems in the region and requires quantitative assessment. The study reported used a combination of methods (geomorphological mapping, soil profile comparison, 137 Cs tracing and USLE-based modelling) to investigate soil and sediment redistribution during the period of serious human impact within the Maly Kazgulak dry valley catchment (area -14 km 2 , main valley length -10 km). Soil redistribution dynamics were assessed for two different timespans, corresponding to the periods before and after the beginning of 137 Cs fallout. By studying three typical slope segments in the upper part of the catchment, the main characteristics of sediment delivery from arable slopes have been established. By combining this information with stratigraphic descriptions and 137 Cs data from sediment sections in the valley bottom, a provisional sediment budget has been constructed for the u...

Trend of Soil Erosion Processes within the Southern Half of the Russian Plain for the Last Decades

IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 2018

Complex approach is applied for assessment of recent trends of sheet, rill and gully erosion in different landscape zones of study area. Investigation is undertaken in 6 selected sectors (area of each transect is about 6-10 thousand km2), uniformly distributed over the area of the Russian Plain. Changes of the different factors, including some meteorological and hydrological parameters, land use change, USLE C-factor, were determined for the period 1980-2015. A set of field methods was used for quantification of sediment redistribution rates for the key small catchments. It was found that erosion rate decreased in forest and forest-steppe zone. Gully density decreases considerably in all landscape zones. The reduction of surface runoff from cultivated slope during snow-melting is the main reason of decreasing of sheet, rill and gully erosion rates in the forest, forest steppe and the north of steppe landscape zones. Increasing the proportion of perennial grasses in crop-rotation is the other factor of serious reduction of erosion processes in the forest zone.

Combined application of soil-morphological method, radionuclide technique and empirically-based modeling for assessing soil redistribution rates (the Kursk study site, central European Russia)

This paper reports a detailed quantitative assessment of soil redistribution rates on cultivated slopes of two different aspects of located within the small arable catchment in the Kursk Region, central European Russia. The following methods were used for soil erosion quantification: soil-morphological method, 137 Cs radioactive tracer and empirically-based modeling. It was found that mean soil erosion rate on southern aspect slope exceeds that on the northern aspect slope. The data obtained by using empirically-based modeling and soil-morphological method showed the greatest similarity, most likely due to the same periods of calculation. Higher sediment redeposition within slope of the southern aspect was detected by the 137 Cs technique (over 60%), while on the northern aspect slope the amount of sediment export exceeded within-slope redeposition by a factor of 4. It can be concluded that application of several independent techniques allows achieving more reliable and detailed qua...

Changes in the Rate of Soil Loss in River Basins within the Southern Part of European Russia

Eurasian Soil Science, 2019

Four river basins located in the forest, forest-steppe, and steppe zones of European Russia were evaluated for two time intervals (1960-1985 and 1986-2015) based on the use of the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) and State Hydrological Institute (SHI) models. The obtained results attest to multidirectional tendencies in the mean annual rates of erosion rates in different landscape zones. The rates of soil erosion have decreased in the forest and eastern steppe zones and have slightly increased in the southern steppe zone. The reduction of surface snowmelt runoff is one of the main reasons for the decrease of soil erosion in the investigated river basins. An increase in the rates of soil erosion is related to the growth of rainfall erosivity factor (R-factor), has been partially offset by an increase in the soil-protective coefficient of crops (C-factor).

Recent changes in sediment redistribution in the upper parts of the fluvial system of European Russia: regional aspects

Proceedings of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences, 2015

Quantitative assessments of soil loss from cultivated land and sediment redistribution along pathways from cultivated fields to river channels have been undertaken using a range of different methods and techniques, including erosion models, detailed studies of sediment redistribution in representative catchments, monitoring of gully head retreat and evaluation of sediment deposition in ponds and small reservoirs. Most of the sediment eroded from arable land is deposited between the lower portions of the cultivated slopes and the river channels. Less than 15% of the eroded sediment is delivered to the river channels. Sediment redistribution rates in the upper parts of the fluvial system have declined during the last 25 years in both the western and eastern parts of the Russian Plain, because of a major reduction of surface runoff during snowmelt and a reduction of the area of arable land in some parts of the study area.

Soil Erosion and Small River Aggradation in Russia

2002

Intensive soil erosion lead to transformation of sediment redistribution within river basin, because of increase of sediment input from slope to the river channel. Cultivation of interfluve and valley slopes within temperate climatic zone promotes to development sheet, rill and gully erosion. Intensive growth of cultivation area in Russia began from the southern part of forest zone and the northern part of forest-steppe zone in XVII century. Than area of intensive cultivation expanded in south and south-east directions and the rest of forest-steppe zone and steppe zone were ploughed during XVIII—XIX century. As a rule both rill and gully erosion rates increased dramatically immediately after cultivation, because of growth of surface runoff. From the other hand part of underground water decreased, that influenced on the summer water discharges of small rivers. Both these tendencies in connection with possible climatic fluctuations of precipitation across the agricultural part of Russ...

Assessment of Net Erosion and Suspended Sediments Yield within River Basins of the Agricultural Belt of Russia

Water, 2022

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY

Evaluation of soil erosion rates in the southern half of the Russian Plain: methodology and initial results

Proceedings of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences, 2017

The Russian Plain (RP) is divided into two principally different parts. The northern half of the RP is a predominantly forested area with a low proportion of arable fields. In contrast, the southern half of the RP has a very high proportion of arable land. During the last 30 years, this agricultural region of the RP has experienced considerable land use transformation and changes in precipitation due to climate change have altered soil erosion rates. This paper describes the use of erosion model calculations and GIS spatial analytical methods for the evaluation of trends in erosion rates in the RP. Climate change (RIHMI World Data Center, 2016), land use transformation and crop rotation modification (Rosstat, 2016; R Core Team, 2016) are the main factors governing erosion rates in the region during recent decades. It was determined that mean annual erosion rates have decreased from 7.3 to 4.1 t ha −1 yr −1 in the forest zone mostly because of the serious reduction in the surface runoff coefficient for periods of snowmelt. At the same time, the erosion rates have increased from 3.9 to 4.6 t ha −1 yr −1 in the steppe zone due to the increasing frequency of heavy rainstorms .

Sediment Budget Change in the Fluvial System at the Central Part of the Russian Plain Due to Human Impact

Sediment budget change through the fluvial system of Zusha River (Central Russian Upland) was calculated for various climatic and land use conditions. These calculations were based on solution of the mass conservation equation with empirical coefficients, calibrated with contemporary data on sedimentation processes in the system. The sedimentological type and rate of aggradation in the fluvial system of Zusha River are controlled mainly by the rate of erosion over the basin, and secondly, by precipitation volume.

Influence of climate and land use changes on recent trends of soil erosion rates within the Russian Plain

Land Degradation & Development, 2018

The Russian Plain (within the Russian Federation) occupies an area of approximately 3.5 × 106 km2. Water erosion is the main land degradation factor within the Russian Plain. Previous quantitative assessments of erosion rates for the entire area of the Russian Plain were undertaken in the 1980s. The application of erosion models and analysis of different factor dynamics allow for the evaluation of the mean annual total soil losses and erosion rates for the post‐Union of Soviet Socialist Republics period, as well as the determination of the trends of erosion rates and soil losses for different landscape zones, for 1980 and 2012. The significant reductions of cultivated land area in all of the landscape zones after 1991 are the main reason behind the 46% reduction in the total annual soil losses in 2012 compared with 1980. The most significant decrease in the soil erosion rate for cultivated lands (from 7.3 Mg ha−1 yr−1 in 1980 to 4.1 Mg ha−1 yr−1 in 2012) was identified in the forest...