Marcin Świtoniak - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Marcin Świtoniak
Handy Dictionary in the Field of Geomorphology, Soil Science and Ecology. English-Polish & Polish-English
This is only excerpt. Full version available only as hard copy.
Paper provides information about culinary heritage and culinary tourism opportunities in Lithuani... more Paper provides information about culinary heritage and culinary tourism opportunities in Lithuania. Please cite as: Burneika D., Skorupskas R., Charzyński P., Świtoniak M., 2015. Cultural Tourism in Lithuania – Experiencing Culinary Heritage in Regional Feasts. [In:] S. Sahin & P. Charzyński (Eds.) THE CULTURAL HERİTAGE AND ITS SUSTAINABILITY IN EUROPE. Pegem Akademi, Ankara, p. 91-105.
Guidelines for Soil Description and Classification Central and Eastern European Students’ Version
Soil investigation may be carried out on various levels of knowledge, research capacity and profi... more Soil investigation may be carried out on various levels of knowledge, research capacity and proficiency. Scientists commonly apply advanced methodology for soil resources inventory, including the professional terminology for landscape and soil description, data acquisition and processing, soil classification and mapping, soil and land evaluation. By default, an internationally accepted system should be recommended. An implementation of such methodology is also recommended in more advanced courses of soil science studies on bachelor and master study levels. However, the long-term teaching experience reveals difficulties connected mainly with complicated terminology and excessive number of characteristics obligatory to know, and justifies some simplification of the language, rules and structure at the introductory stage of teaching. This was the base and rationale for the preparation of simplified Guidelines for Soil Description and Classification: Central and Eastern European Students’ Version. This book is divided into three parts. The first one – Site and soil description - follows the layout and content of professional edition of Guidelines for Soil Description, 4th ed., published by FAO (2006), simplified for educational purposes. The order of description has been modified to correspond to the layout of an original Soil description sheet. The second part - Soil classification - is a simplified WRB classification (based on a 2014/2015 edition) limited to reference soil groups known from Central Europe. The third part is an Illustrated explanatory guide that includes: i) examples of typical soil profiles for all Central European Reference Soil Groups; ii) morphological features important for soil description and identification in the field; iii) soil- landscape relationships. The photos have been enriched with graphical tips helpful at the recognizing of important soil features. The textbook was developed in the framework of EU Erasmus+ FACES project (Freely Accessible Central European Soil) aiming to facilitate the knowledge and implementation of an international rules of soil characterization adopted by the FAO. It will be used to unify the presentation of soil data collected in the partner countries. The interpretation of soil data fully based on the international soil classification WRB (World Reference Base for Soil Resources 2015) as WRB was endorsed by the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) and accepted by the European Commission as an official system for the European Union. Therefore, this guideline might be a starting point for preparation of basic teaching materials to spread the knowledge on an internationally recommended rules and terminology for soil description and classification. However, this guideline is designed as teaching tool for students in Central and Eastern European countries and therefore it may not be applicable worldwide. Moreover, it is suited for the “first step” training, and it is not substituting any professional original classification. Authors of this guidebook assume that the users are familiar with the basic knowledge in soil science. Therefore, the guidelines do not contain explanations related to basic soil forming factors, soil forming processes and basic physico-chemical features
SUITMA 7: Soils of Urban, Industrial, Traffic, Mining and Military Areas, Toruń, 16-20 September 2013: abstracts
Bulletin of Geography. Physical Geography Series
Soil erodibility is one of the crucial parameters for modelling soil erosion, expressed as the K-... more Soil erodibility is one of the crucial parameters for modelling soil erosion, expressed as the K-factor. The presented study tries to illustrate the spatial variance of K-factor on a local scale through the investigation of soil properties and descriptive spatial analysis utilising GIS tools at microscale in a young hummocky moraine landscape in Northern Poland. The results of the interpolation of K-factor values illustrate their changing from high values in eroded pedons on the tops of hummocks to low values in kettle holes. The middle position is occupied by slightly and non-eroded pedons. The mean weight results were very similar to data that were found on the scale of Europe and Poland. In landscapes with heterogeneous soil cover, there are significant differences in maps based on different approaches to data visualisation. There are advantages and disadvantages to both (1) referring to mean values of the K index for soil contours representing different soil types and (2) interp...
Assessment of the selected heavy metals pollution level in the soils developed from mill pond sediments
Hungarian Geographical Bulletin
Terroir refers to the geographical origin of wines. The landscape factors (topography, parent roc... more Terroir refers to the geographical origin of wines. The landscape factors (topography, parent rock, soil, microbial life, climate, natural vegetation) are coupled with cultural factors (cultivation history and technology, cultivars and rootstock) and all together define a terroir. The physical factors can be well visualized by a slope profile developed into a pedosequence showing the regular configuration of the relevant physical factors for a wine district. In the present study the generalized topographic pedosequence (or catena) and GIS spatial model of the Villány Hills, a historical wine producing region, serves for the spatial representation and characterization of terroir types. A survey of properties of Cabernet Franc grape juice allowed the comparison of 10 vineyards in the Villány Wine District, Southwest Hungary. Five grape juice properties (FAN, NH3, YAN, density and glucose + fructose content) have been found to have a moderate linear relationship (0.5 < r2 < 0.7) ...
Zarys treści: Rozdział zawiera charakterystykę pokrywy glebowej zagłębienia bezodpływowego w Retn... more Zarys treści: Rozdział zawiera charakterystykę pokrywy glebowej zagłębienia bezodpływowego w Retnie wykonaną na podstawie szczegółowych badań gleboznawczych. Pomimo niewielkiego areału obszar badań odznacza się znaczną różnorodnością jednostek glebowych. Denudacja odegrała znaczną rolę jedynie w rolniczej części badanego obszaru. Dno zagłębienia pokrywają gleby organiczne (torfowe oraz murszowe). W leśnej części zlewni dominują w pełni wykształcone autogeniczne gleby płowe i gleby rdzawe niecałkowite. W dolnych partiach stoków gleby te przechodzą w niewielkie areały gleb deluwialnych o nieznacznej miąższości. Gleby zerodowane-pelosole i arenosole-występują jedynie w części zlewni użytkowanej rolniczo. U podnóża odlesionych zboczy rozwinęły się gleby deluwialne o dużej miąższości i znacznych areałach. Gleby te poniżej linii dolnego załomu przykrywają gleby organiczne.
Soil Science Annual
Soil erosion, as a result of which physical, chemical and morphological features of the soil are ... more Soil erosion, as a result of which physical, chemical and morphological features of the soil are changing, is an increasingly common problem. The outcropping of deeper horizons of pedons also causes a change in the colour of their surface horizons, which is reflected in aerial photos. Strongly exposed to erosive transformations are agricultural areas. Intensive human activity leads to an increase in ratio of natural slope processes and the movement of soil material by agricultural machinery, which is called human-induced erosion or denudation. The largest transformations within study area-the Chełmża commune, can be observed at the tops of convex hills, where the plow horizons of the strongly truncated soils are mixed with the calcareous parent material (glacial tills). The aim of this study was to determine spatial extent of soils that contain calcium carbonate in plow horizons, based on available orthophotomaps and cartographic materials-topographic maps and a numerical terrain model. More than 700 contours (about 1% of investigated area) of eroded soils potentially rich in the calcium carbonate were delimited. The following criteria were taken into account: 1) very bright brown colour of surface horizons indicating the potential presence of calcium carbonate; 2) proximity of strongly eroded clay-illuvial soils characterized by a dark brown color of surface horizons indicating the exposure on surface of argik horizons; 3) occurrence in places exposed to erosion-on tops of hills and within convex slopes. Field works and laboratory analysis allowed to verification of the contours of potentially calcareous soils. These studies confirmed the high suitability of aerial photos in delimitation of mentioned pedons-96% of the analysed profiles represented strongly eroded calcareous soils. The average content of CaCO3 in plow horizons was 6.1%. The only genetic horizons of the studied soils are weakly developed A horizons lying directly on parent material. Plow horizons did not meet the criteria referring to colour and/or carbon content of mollik and parent material had too low a calcium carbonate content to designate kalcik horizons. According to the Polish Soils Classification (2019), most of the analysed soils can be classified as weakly developed soils-typical/humic regosols. In one case, due to the strong influence of ground water, the profile was classified as gleysol. The review of archival materials focused on eroded calcareous soils indicates the possibility of occurrence of mollik or/and kalcik horizons and what is connected with it-chernozems, black earths and stagnosols.
Soils of the agricultural lands of the Horatskaya Plain
Soil Sequences Atlas III, 218 s
Bulletin of Geography. Physical Geography Series, Jun 1, 2018
The aim of this paper is to assess the quality and correctness of information on Polish soils ava... more The aim of this paper is to assess the quality and correctness of information on Polish soils available on selected websites. Particular attention was paid to educational portals, which became the subject of evaluation of the information its contains in terms of the correctness, up-to-dateness and reliability. Twenty-five websites representing educational portals and blogs were selected for analysis in terms of their contents (type of subject matter) correctness (substantial value), curentness (presence of up-to-date information) and completeness. Most of the information on the evaluated educational portals is targeted at high school students. These websites present only basic content. The most frequent issues on the analyzed portals were: soil types and soil systematics, distribution of soils in Poland, definition of soil and also soil valuation classes. Websites addressed to university students constitute a decided minority, could be said, that even an exception. One of those is article on Wikipedia, which has the highest educational value among all analysed websites.
As a form of environmental degradation, soil degradation directly or indirectly affects many live... more As a form of environmental degradation, soil degradation directly or indirectly affects many lives through decreased agricultural yields, increased flooding and habitat loss. Soil loss has been increasing in most parts of the world and is most pronounced in tropical developing countries where there is poor or zero soil and water conservation (SWC) planning and management activities. Identifying areas prone to soil erosion has also been inadequate, having not been informed by dedicated scientific studies. This is true of the poorly understood watershed of Welmel in the Oromia region of Ethiopia, where most livelihoods heavily rely upon agriculture. To plan effective SWC management techniques, a solid knowledge of spatial variations across different climate, land use and soil erosion is essential. This study has aimed at identifying potential areas needing SWC practices through conducting a spatial modeling of soil erosion within the Welmel watershed's Genale Dawa basin using a ge...
Soil Science Annual
Chernozemic soils are distinguished based on the presence of thick, black or very dark, rich in h... more Chernozemic soils are distinguished based on the presence of thick, black or very dark, rich in humus, well-structural and base-saturated topsoil horizon, and the accumulation of secondary carbonates within soil profile. In Central Europe these soils occur in variable forms, respectively to climate gradients, position in the landscape, moisture regime, land use, and erosion/accumulation intensity. “Typical” chernozems, correlated with Calcic or Haplic Chernozems, are similarly positioned at basic classification level in the national soil classifications in Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, and in WRB. Chernozemic soils at various stages of their transformation are placed in Chernozems, Phaeozems or Kastanozems, supplied with respective qualifiers, e.g. Cambic, Luvic, Salic/Protosalic, Sodic/Protosodic etc. Some primeval Chernozems thinned by erosion may still fulfil criteria of Chernozems, but commonly are shifted to Calcisols. Soils upbuilt (aggraded) with colluvial additions may also ...
Soil Science Annual
Technogenic soils (Technosols) developed in an ash settling pond at the Bełchatów thermal power s... more Technogenic soils (Technosols) developed in an ash settling pond at the Bełchatów thermal power station, central Poland, were studied in order to identify soil property transformations over 30 years of pedogenesis. Standard pedological methods were applied in order to determine the properties of the studied samples. All investigated soils were classified according to WRB as Spolic Technosols with various supplementary qualifiers (Alcalic/Hypereutric, Arenic/Loamic, Protocalcic, Hyperartefactic, Immisic, Laxic, Ochric, and Protosalic). The studied materials can be arranged into a chronosequence starting from fresh (unweathered) ashes, by young Technosol BE1 (age: several months), up to older Technosols BE2 (about 20 years) and BE3 (about 30 years). The studies showed that weathering and soil-forming processes changed properties of ash in soil environment. Fresh ash was characterized by high pH (11.0 – fly ash, 8.7 – bottom ash), low content of carbonates (1.5% in both samples), varia...
Issues related to classification of garden soils from the urban area of Toruń, Poland
Soil Science and Plant Nutrition
ABSTRACT Nowadays, the city area of Toruń is dominated by anthropogenic and technogenic soils – d... more ABSTRACT Nowadays, the city area of Toruń is dominated by anthropogenic and technogenic soils – developed by humans or significantly altered, mainly disturbed in terms of morphology and chemical and physical properties. This study is a continuation of research on the soil cover of the city. The aim of the presented study is to assess extent of garden soils in the city and characterize its properties on the base of five soil profiles in four exemplary gardens in Toruń and evaluate if they meet the classification criteria for Hortic Anthrosols according to World Reference Base (WRB) for Soil Resources. Within the administrative boundaries of the city, 66 allotment gardens are located which totally cover an area of more than 300 ha. They occupy 3% of the city area. None of the studied mineral surface horizons meets the criteria for hortic horizon according to WRB 2015, due to too low phosphorus content. Other hortic criteria were fulfilled. The research on classification issues of garden soils should be continued on larger scale to evaluate if WRB criteria are not too strict taking into account the features of most typical, few decade-old garden soils.
Handy Dictionary in the Field of Geomorphology, Soil Science and Ecology. English-Polish & Polish-English
This is only excerpt. Full version available only as hard copy.
Paper provides information about culinary heritage and culinary tourism opportunities in Lithuani... more Paper provides information about culinary heritage and culinary tourism opportunities in Lithuania. Please cite as: Burneika D., Skorupskas R., Charzyński P., Świtoniak M., 2015. Cultural Tourism in Lithuania – Experiencing Culinary Heritage in Regional Feasts. [In:] S. Sahin & P. Charzyński (Eds.) THE CULTURAL HERİTAGE AND ITS SUSTAINABILITY IN EUROPE. Pegem Akademi, Ankara, p. 91-105.
Guidelines for Soil Description and Classification Central and Eastern European Students’ Version
Soil investigation may be carried out on various levels of knowledge, research capacity and profi... more Soil investigation may be carried out on various levels of knowledge, research capacity and proficiency. Scientists commonly apply advanced methodology for soil resources inventory, including the professional terminology for landscape and soil description, data acquisition and processing, soil classification and mapping, soil and land evaluation. By default, an internationally accepted system should be recommended. An implementation of such methodology is also recommended in more advanced courses of soil science studies on bachelor and master study levels. However, the long-term teaching experience reveals difficulties connected mainly with complicated terminology and excessive number of characteristics obligatory to know, and justifies some simplification of the language, rules and structure at the introductory stage of teaching. This was the base and rationale for the preparation of simplified Guidelines for Soil Description and Classification: Central and Eastern European Students’ Version. This book is divided into three parts. The first one – Site and soil description - follows the layout and content of professional edition of Guidelines for Soil Description, 4th ed., published by FAO (2006), simplified for educational purposes. The order of description has been modified to correspond to the layout of an original Soil description sheet. The second part - Soil classification - is a simplified WRB classification (based on a 2014/2015 edition) limited to reference soil groups known from Central Europe. The third part is an Illustrated explanatory guide that includes: i) examples of typical soil profiles for all Central European Reference Soil Groups; ii) morphological features important for soil description and identification in the field; iii) soil- landscape relationships. The photos have been enriched with graphical tips helpful at the recognizing of important soil features. The textbook was developed in the framework of EU Erasmus+ FACES project (Freely Accessible Central European Soil) aiming to facilitate the knowledge and implementation of an international rules of soil characterization adopted by the FAO. It will be used to unify the presentation of soil data collected in the partner countries. The interpretation of soil data fully based on the international soil classification WRB (World Reference Base for Soil Resources 2015) as WRB was endorsed by the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) and accepted by the European Commission as an official system for the European Union. Therefore, this guideline might be a starting point for preparation of basic teaching materials to spread the knowledge on an internationally recommended rules and terminology for soil description and classification. However, this guideline is designed as teaching tool for students in Central and Eastern European countries and therefore it may not be applicable worldwide. Moreover, it is suited for the “first step” training, and it is not substituting any professional original classification. Authors of this guidebook assume that the users are familiar with the basic knowledge in soil science. Therefore, the guidelines do not contain explanations related to basic soil forming factors, soil forming processes and basic physico-chemical features
SUITMA 7: Soils of Urban, Industrial, Traffic, Mining and Military Areas, Toruń, 16-20 September 2013: abstracts
Bulletin of Geography. Physical Geography Series
Soil erodibility is one of the crucial parameters for modelling soil erosion, expressed as the K-... more Soil erodibility is one of the crucial parameters for modelling soil erosion, expressed as the K-factor. The presented study tries to illustrate the spatial variance of K-factor on a local scale through the investigation of soil properties and descriptive spatial analysis utilising GIS tools at microscale in a young hummocky moraine landscape in Northern Poland. The results of the interpolation of K-factor values illustrate their changing from high values in eroded pedons on the tops of hummocks to low values in kettle holes. The middle position is occupied by slightly and non-eroded pedons. The mean weight results were very similar to data that were found on the scale of Europe and Poland. In landscapes with heterogeneous soil cover, there are significant differences in maps based on different approaches to data visualisation. There are advantages and disadvantages to both (1) referring to mean values of the K index for soil contours representing different soil types and (2) interp...
Assessment of the selected heavy metals pollution level in the soils developed from mill pond sediments
Hungarian Geographical Bulletin
Terroir refers to the geographical origin of wines. The landscape factors (topography, parent roc... more Terroir refers to the geographical origin of wines. The landscape factors (topography, parent rock, soil, microbial life, climate, natural vegetation) are coupled with cultural factors (cultivation history and technology, cultivars and rootstock) and all together define a terroir. The physical factors can be well visualized by a slope profile developed into a pedosequence showing the regular configuration of the relevant physical factors for a wine district. In the present study the generalized topographic pedosequence (or catena) and GIS spatial model of the Villány Hills, a historical wine producing region, serves for the spatial representation and characterization of terroir types. A survey of properties of Cabernet Franc grape juice allowed the comparison of 10 vineyards in the Villány Wine District, Southwest Hungary. Five grape juice properties (FAN, NH3, YAN, density and glucose + fructose content) have been found to have a moderate linear relationship (0.5 < r2 < 0.7) ...
Zarys treści: Rozdział zawiera charakterystykę pokrywy glebowej zagłębienia bezodpływowego w Retn... more Zarys treści: Rozdział zawiera charakterystykę pokrywy glebowej zagłębienia bezodpływowego w Retnie wykonaną na podstawie szczegółowych badań gleboznawczych. Pomimo niewielkiego areału obszar badań odznacza się znaczną różnorodnością jednostek glebowych. Denudacja odegrała znaczną rolę jedynie w rolniczej części badanego obszaru. Dno zagłębienia pokrywają gleby organiczne (torfowe oraz murszowe). W leśnej części zlewni dominują w pełni wykształcone autogeniczne gleby płowe i gleby rdzawe niecałkowite. W dolnych partiach stoków gleby te przechodzą w niewielkie areały gleb deluwialnych o nieznacznej miąższości. Gleby zerodowane-pelosole i arenosole-występują jedynie w części zlewni użytkowanej rolniczo. U podnóża odlesionych zboczy rozwinęły się gleby deluwialne o dużej miąższości i znacznych areałach. Gleby te poniżej linii dolnego załomu przykrywają gleby organiczne.
Soil Science Annual
Soil erosion, as a result of which physical, chemical and morphological features of the soil are ... more Soil erosion, as a result of which physical, chemical and morphological features of the soil are changing, is an increasingly common problem. The outcropping of deeper horizons of pedons also causes a change in the colour of their surface horizons, which is reflected in aerial photos. Strongly exposed to erosive transformations are agricultural areas. Intensive human activity leads to an increase in ratio of natural slope processes and the movement of soil material by agricultural machinery, which is called human-induced erosion or denudation. The largest transformations within study area-the Chełmża commune, can be observed at the tops of convex hills, where the plow horizons of the strongly truncated soils are mixed with the calcareous parent material (glacial tills). The aim of this study was to determine spatial extent of soils that contain calcium carbonate in plow horizons, based on available orthophotomaps and cartographic materials-topographic maps and a numerical terrain model. More than 700 contours (about 1% of investigated area) of eroded soils potentially rich in the calcium carbonate were delimited. The following criteria were taken into account: 1) very bright brown colour of surface horizons indicating the potential presence of calcium carbonate; 2) proximity of strongly eroded clay-illuvial soils characterized by a dark brown color of surface horizons indicating the exposure on surface of argik horizons; 3) occurrence in places exposed to erosion-on tops of hills and within convex slopes. Field works and laboratory analysis allowed to verification of the contours of potentially calcareous soils. These studies confirmed the high suitability of aerial photos in delimitation of mentioned pedons-96% of the analysed profiles represented strongly eroded calcareous soils. The average content of CaCO3 in plow horizons was 6.1%. The only genetic horizons of the studied soils are weakly developed A horizons lying directly on parent material. Plow horizons did not meet the criteria referring to colour and/or carbon content of mollik and parent material had too low a calcium carbonate content to designate kalcik horizons. According to the Polish Soils Classification (2019), most of the analysed soils can be classified as weakly developed soils-typical/humic regosols. In one case, due to the strong influence of ground water, the profile was classified as gleysol. The review of archival materials focused on eroded calcareous soils indicates the possibility of occurrence of mollik or/and kalcik horizons and what is connected with it-chernozems, black earths and stagnosols.
Soils of the agricultural lands of the Horatskaya Plain
Soil Sequences Atlas III, 218 s
Bulletin of Geography. Physical Geography Series, Jun 1, 2018
The aim of this paper is to assess the quality and correctness of information on Polish soils ava... more The aim of this paper is to assess the quality and correctness of information on Polish soils available on selected websites. Particular attention was paid to educational portals, which became the subject of evaluation of the information its contains in terms of the correctness, up-to-dateness and reliability. Twenty-five websites representing educational portals and blogs were selected for analysis in terms of their contents (type of subject matter) correctness (substantial value), curentness (presence of up-to-date information) and completeness. Most of the information on the evaluated educational portals is targeted at high school students. These websites present only basic content. The most frequent issues on the analyzed portals were: soil types and soil systematics, distribution of soils in Poland, definition of soil and also soil valuation classes. Websites addressed to university students constitute a decided minority, could be said, that even an exception. One of those is article on Wikipedia, which has the highest educational value among all analysed websites.
As a form of environmental degradation, soil degradation directly or indirectly affects many live... more As a form of environmental degradation, soil degradation directly or indirectly affects many lives through decreased agricultural yields, increased flooding and habitat loss. Soil loss has been increasing in most parts of the world and is most pronounced in tropical developing countries where there is poor or zero soil and water conservation (SWC) planning and management activities. Identifying areas prone to soil erosion has also been inadequate, having not been informed by dedicated scientific studies. This is true of the poorly understood watershed of Welmel in the Oromia region of Ethiopia, where most livelihoods heavily rely upon agriculture. To plan effective SWC management techniques, a solid knowledge of spatial variations across different climate, land use and soil erosion is essential. This study has aimed at identifying potential areas needing SWC practices through conducting a spatial modeling of soil erosion within the Welmel watershed's Genale Dawa basin using a ge...
Soil Science Annual
Chernozemic soils are distinguished based on the presence of thick, black or very dark, rich in h... more Chernozemic soils are distinguished based on the presence of thick, black or very dark, rich in humus, well-structural and base-saturated topsoil horizon, and the accumulation of secondary carbonates within soil profile. In Central Europe these soils occur in variable forms, respectively to climate gradients, position in the landscape, moisture regime, land use, and erosion/accumulation intensity. “Typical” chernozems, correlated with Calcic or Haplic Chernozems, are similarly positioned at basic classification level in the national soil classifications in Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, and in WRB. Chernozemic soils at various stages of their transformation are placed in Chernozems, Phaeozems or Kastanozems, supplied with respective qualifiers, e.g. Cambic, Luvic, Salic/Protosalic, Sodic/Protosodic etc. Some primeval Chernozems thinned by erosion may still fulfil criteria of Chernozems, but commonly are shifted to Calcisols. Soils upbuilt (aggraded) with colluvial additions may also ...
Soil Science Annual
Technogenic soils (Technosols) developed in an ash settling pond at the Bełchatów thermal power s... more Technogenic soils (Technosols) developed in an ash settling pond at the Bełchatów thermal power station, central Poland, were studied in order to identify soil property transformations over 30 years of pedogenesis. Standard pedological methods were applied in order to determine the properties of the studied samples. All investigated soils were classified according to WRB as Spolic Technosols with various supplementary qualifiers (Alcalic/Hypereutric, Arenic/Loamic, Protocalcic, Hyperartefactic, Immisic, Laxic, Ochric, and Protosalic). The studied materials can be arranged into a chronosequence starting from fresh (unweathered) ashes, by young Technosol BE1 (age: several months), up to older Technosols BE2 (about 20 years) and BE3 (about 30 years). The studies showed that weathering and soil-forming processes changed properties of ash in soil environment. Fresh ash was characterized by high pH (11.0 – fly ash, 8.7 – bottom ash), low content of carbonates (1.5% in both samples), varia...
Issues related to classification of garden soils from the urban area of Toruń, Poland
Soil Science and Plant Nutrition
ABSTRACT Nowadays, the city area of Toruń is dominated by anthropogenic and technogenic soils – d... more ABSTRACT Nowadays, the city area of Toruń is dominated by anthropogenic and technogenic soils – developed by humans or significantly altered, mainly disturbed in terms of morphology and chemical and physical properties. This study is a continuation of research on the soil cover of the city. The aim of the presented study is to assess extent of garden soils in the city and characterize its properties on the base of five soil profiles in four exemplary gardens in Toruń and evaluate if they meet the classification criteria for Hortic Anthrosols according to World Reference Base (WRB) for Soil Resources. Within the administrative boundaries of the city, 66 allotment gardens are located which totally cover an area of more than 300 ha. They occupy 3% of the city area. None of the studied mineral surface horizons meets the criteria for hortic horizon according to WRB 2015, due to too low phosphorus content. Other hortic criteria were fulfilled. The research on classification issues of garden soils should be continued on larger scale to evaluate if WRB criteria are not too strict taking into account the features of most typical, few decade-old garden soils.