Estimation of Water Conductivity of Typical Chernozem in the Depressed Zone of the Water-Regulating Forest Belt

Abstract

The studies aimed to assess the change in the absorbency of the soil with distance from the forest belt, including the depressed zone. The work was carried out in 2018–2022 in a long-term field stationary experience in contour-reclamation agriculture in the Kursk region. The assessment was carried out for erosion-threatening slopes of southern and northern exposures with an agroforest reclamation complex, represented by contour-parallel placed water-regulating two-row forest belts with a water-catching ditch in the row-spacing and a masonry-cum-earth dam along the lower edge. The soil was a typical medium-thick low-humus heavy loamy chernozem. To determine the width of the depressed zone, the yield of crops was studied at 5, 10, and 25 m from the forest belt up and down the slope, the control was the upland. A significant decrease in harvest, regardless of weather conditions, was observed at 5 m; for buckwheat it was 68.8–75.0%, spring barley 40.0–65.7%, winter wheat 24.9–56.9% compared to control. The absorbing capacity of the soil was determined on perennial grasses and spring barley in the depressed zone by the method of small flooded areas and sprinkling of runoff areas. The intensity of pressure absorption in the crops of perennial grasses on the soils of the slope of the northern exposure was higher than in the crops of barley by 55%, of the southern, four times. The intensity of water absorption, estimated by the method of sprinkling of runoff plots, in crops of perennial grasses on the slope of the northern exposure was 0.6 mm/min, of the southern exposure 0.8 mm/min, which was significantly higher than in barley crops. To increase the absorbency of the soil, both during the period of snowmelt and during heavy rains, it is recommended to sow perennial grasses along forest strips more than 5 m wide.