Soil fertility of Rogozna mountain

Mountain Rogozna is located in the southern part of the country, between Raska, Novi Pazar and Kosovska Mitrovica municipalitices, surrounded by the rivers Ibar, Raska and Jošanica. The part of the mountain is located in central Serbia, and the other part in the province of Kosovo. The geological composition of this area is very diverse, presented by igneous rocks - ultramafic, dacite-andesite, and quartz latite with pyroclastic rocks, as well as by sedimentary rocks - shale and marl with the diabasechert and flysch formations (sands, alevrolytes and marl). Ranker type of soil dominates on Rogozna, while on steep slopes there were formed regosol, and rarely there can be found a deeper cambic soil. The largest number of the stage of soil development is found under andesite, which occupies the largest area and the various forms the relief. The paper presents the results of basic soil properties and content of heavy metals on the part of Mt. Rogozna belonging to central Serbia, aimed to determine the status and differences in soil fertility by the geological substrates. The soil samples (about 30) were taken from surface horizon (0-25cm), according to the grid system at a distance of 3.3 x 3.3 km. Composite sample consists of five individual samples taken at the corners and in the center of the square with a side length of 10m. The most number of samples were taken in meadow, 6 samples in forest, 2 samples in arable land, and 1 in orchard. In the prepared soil samples the following parameters were determined: pH in nKCl (1: 2.5) - electrometrically; CaCO3 volumetrically with Scheibler calcimeter; humus – were calculated from the content of organic C (CNS analyzer); accessible phosphorus and potassium – by Al method (Egner-Riehm). Heavy metals content ("pseudo totals") - by boiling with HNO3 and H2O2 and spectrometric determination (ICP-OAS). The investigated soil has a different reaction depending on the substrate on which it was formed. The rankers on quartz latite and dacito-andesite have a strongly acidic reaction, the soils on ultrabasic rocks is weakly acidic, and on flysch are in the range from acidic to neutral. Lack of phosphorus occurs in soil on all substrates. The values of heavy metals are generally at the level common for this type of soil. The soils on ultrabasic rocks are outstanding because they naturally rich in Ni, Cr, and other heavy metals. In addition, in comparison to the average in Serbia, the soil on all the substrates has a slightly higher average concentration of Pb (59-93 mg kg-1), probably due to the abundance of substrate by ores of Pb and Zn, and possibly due to human influence.