MORPHOLOGICAL FEATURES OF THE SOIL COVER OF THE TERRITORY OF THE MITROPOLYCHI GARDENS OF THE CITY OF LVIV

Abstract

Metropolitan gardens are gardens located on the territory of the complex of St. George's Cathedral in Lviv within the Lviv Plateau in a zone of increased complexity of geological conditions and a significant difference in relief. Metropolitan gardens are a kind of standard of nature, which allows to track the course of natural processes in the environment. The territory, which includes the Svyatoyurska Mountain with gardens, belongs to the UNESCO heritage. Since the founding of the Metropolitan Gardens, there have been practically not conducted various studies of soil formation conditions, study of their features. Having studied the literary sources, it is worth noting that insufficient attention was also paid to the study of the soil cover of Metropolitan Gardens. Within the territory of the study are widespread sod-carbonate, sod-silty soils with varying degrees of degradation and anthropogenic-variable soils (urban soils) are common. The presented soils undergo significant changes in the process of economic and recreational influence, intense anthropogenic load causes compaction of the upper layers of the soil cover, a decrease in field moisture capacity, and a decrease in porosity indicators. If natural (sod-carbonate, sod-glay) non-urbanized soils are characterized by high acidity and a lack of nutrients, then, unlike them, anthropogenic-modified soils (urban soils) are characterized by a neutral or alkaline reaction and a sufficient amount of nutrients. At the same time, they are often distinguished by high drainage and low water maintenance, as well as the imbalance of humic and fulvic acids. The morphological features of the natural and anthropogenic-transformed soils of the Metropolitan Gardens of the city of Lviv. The data of the morphological descriptions of the soil horizons make it possible to trace a certain mosaic of the soil cover of the study area, which combines natural sloping areas and landscape-engineering objects in the form of embankment terraces. Keywords: Metropolitan Gardens; Lviv Plateau; urban soil; turf-carbonate soils; sod clay soils; anthropogenically transformed soils.