Sandy soils and the state of afforestation in the zone of intense deflation in Ukraine

It is shown that excessive plowing of land caused an intensive erosion processes and, as a result, degradation of soil cover in Ukraine. The most effective way of slowing down and preventing soil degradation is to optimize the ratio of arable land to ecologically stabilizing lands. It’s achieved by transforming degraded and unproductive lands from using, followed by their conservation and transformation into forest and forage lands. According to various estimations, subject to seizure from 6.5 to 10 million hectares of arable land, mainly in the Steppe, which territory is most plowed. Some of these lands have already been transferred for afforestation. It has been established that the largest areas of afforestation in recent decades coincide with the implementation of the State Target Program “Forests of Ukraine” for 2010-2015. During this period, about 210 thousand hectares of unproductive lands, mostly (90%) by state forestry enterprises of the steppe zone, were taken under afforestation. As of January 1, 2009, the total area of land designated for afforestation but not covered by forest decreased to 44777 ha, and most of them (96.9%) are located in the steppe zone. The indicators of taking root and safety of forest crops created during afforestation in the steppe which have been presented are significantly lower than the normative ones. So over the past three years (2016-2018), the average value of actual survival of 1-3-year-old forest crops during afforestation is 60.9%, while the normative indicator is 70.1%. The maximum areas of crops lost during afforestation are also located in the Steppe zone, in particular at state enterprises of the Donetsk, Mykolaiv and Kherson Regional Forestry and Hunting Departments (RFHD), and in 2018 in Kherson RFHD 100% of the crops lost, and a whole, their share is 61%. Characterized soddys podzolized soils of clay–sandy composition on ancient alluvium sandy, which, due to extremely unfavorable properties for crops (the structure less, low – moisture capacity, humus content, trophicity) are largely transmitted under afforestation. In the southeastern part of Ukraine, in particular, in the arenas of the Nizhnedneprovsky (Oleshkovsky) sands, primitive soils are widespread, along with sod podzolized ones. Oleshkovsky sands is one of the largest sand massifs in Ukraine and is considered the second largest desert in Europe. Due to a number of climatic conditions, this part of Ukraine is a province of active deflation. It covers Donetsk, Lugansk and southern parts of Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson regions. On the territory of these regions also the largest area of non-afforested land is concentrated. It is substantiated that in the steppe conditions, determining the degree of deflation of sandy soils by the transformation of the humus horizon is rather problematic, due, first of all, to its very insignificant thickness, and sometimes its complete absence, and because of the complex relief of dry arenas. It was shown that fertility level of these soils is completely dependent on the content of clay particles, therefore this indicator is the most informative both in determining the degree of deflation soils and in general their typological assessment. The markers proposed for assessing their deflation and, in general, forest growth potential.