Landscape Features affecting the dynamics of forest growth on agricultural lands of the Perm Territory

Abstract

The dynamics of forest growth on agricultural lands has been studied since the 1990s, which was the starting point of a massive reduction in their cultivation intensity. The total area of the overgrown agricultural land in the Perm Territory reached 58.8% of the total area of agricultural land as of 1985. The boundaries of the forested lands were recorded using remote sensing methods and the archival satellite images of medium spatial resolution. The dynamics analysis was carried out within the flat part of the Perm Territory, taking into account the soil regions’ boundaries. It has been established that the main natural factors of lands differentiation in terms of the scale and rate of their withdrawal from agricultural use are the small scale or uneven terrain of separate agricultural lands, making it less accessible for the agricultural machines, and differences in soil fertility. The least fertile soils, as well as the most difficult to cultivate, were the first to become susceptible to forest overgrowth. The more fertile soils were reforested later, as agricultural activity declined.