1st International Conference of Soil and Agriculture:
TOWARDS SOIL SUSTAINABILITY
11–13 June 2024 • Lublin–Nałęczów, Poland

https://doi.org/10.24326/ICSA1.PP.15
Published online: 4 October 2024

Morphological changes of alluvial soils
under the conditions of Odra river valley regulation
Dorota Kawałko*, Paweł Jezierski, Katarzyna Szopka

Institute of Soil Science, Plant Nutrition and Environmental Protection, Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Science, Grunwaldzka 53, 50-357 Wrocław, Polska
* Corresponding author:

Abstract
This study aimed to analyse the directions and intensity of the transformation morphological features in the profiles of alluvial farming soils under the permanently lowered groundwater table in a regulated river valley. The research was carried out in the low valley of the Odra River in its middle course downstream from Wrocław. The soil profiles were exposed on the right bank of the Odra River on the Holocene floodplain terrace. They were located in the embanked zone used as grassland and outside the embankments in the areas used as arable lands. Soil morphology was described following the Annex to the Polish Soil Classification. In particular, attention was paid to the type, form, and intensity of soil gleying and redox precipitation, as well as soil structure and colour in the surface and subsurface horizons. Soils were classified using the WRB system (IUSS) and the Polish Soil Classification. Soil colour was determined using the Munsell Colour Atlas. Soils were sampled and analysed using the standard procedures in soil science. The studied soils differed in the morphological features of individual genetic horizons, the location of the groundwater table, the extent and intensity of redoximorphic features, as well as the depth and stratification of the alluvial parent material. This was reflected in the classification: Eutric Fluvic Gleysol (Pantoloamic), Eutric Gleyic Fluvic Cambisol (Ochric), Eutric Fluvic Stagnic Cambisol (Ochric), Eutric Stagnic Fluvisol (Katoarenic, Ochric, Brunic). In the area of this research, the effects of terrain micro-relief former meandering of the river are clearly visible, which is manifested by the heavier texture of the soils situated presently close to the river and lighter texture of soils located further away. The deep occurrence of the groundwater table in soils located in the slightly higher sites results in a lowering of vertical range of gleyic properties and their replacement with stagnic properties in the middle part of the soil profile. The change of the water regime contributed also to the increase of biological activity, and thus the development of the cambic horizon.

Keywords: alluvial soils, river regulation, groundwater level, morphological features

How to cite
Kawałko D., Jezierski P., Szopka K., 2024. Morphological changes of alluvial soils under the conditions of Odra river valley regulation. 1st International Conference of Soil and Agriculture: Towards Soil Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.24326/ICSA1.PP.15