Experience of combined assessment of the neutral balance of land degradation in the Volgograd region and environmental and economic damage inflicted to this land

E. V. Tsvetnov¹, O. A. Makarov^1,2, O. B. Tsvetnova¹, N. R. Kruichkov^1
1Lomonosov Moscow State University, Leninskie gory, 1, str. 12, Moskva, 119991, Russian Federation
²Educational-Experimental Soil and Environmental Center, Lomonosov Moscow State University, pos. Chashnikovo, p/o Udarnyi, Solnechnogorskii r-n, Moskovskaya obl., 141592, Russian Federation

Abstract. We assessed land degradation in the Volgograd region using two methodological approaches: determination of the neutral balance of land degradation (NBLD) and calculation of damage from degradation processes. Based on the basic settings of platform Trends.Earth recommended by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification for calculating the NBLD, it was found that for the Volgograd region it has a negative value (-46.8%). For 15 years (from 2000 to 2015), 60.4% of the region’s territory was subject to land degradation that indicates an extremely unstable land use in the region. At the same time, it is the productivity indicator that has the greatest impact on the component of land degradation in the region. The soil organic carbon indicator turned out to be insignificant, which is due to the insufficient quality of the global data built into platform Trends.Earth, since the dynamics are not calculated on the basis of the actual humus content in soils, but it is based on averaged data for individual types of land cover, which requires adjustments taking into account national data. The damage from the degradation of agricultural land in all municipal districts of the Volgograd region was assessed using the example of such processes as agrodepletion (a decrease in the content of exchangeable potassium, mobile phosphorus, humus, and changes in acidity) and alkalinization. Each of these indicators was evaluated on a five-point scale. The damage from degradation for the municipal districts of the region varied from 41 rubles/ha for the Palassovsky district to 38,018 rubles/ha for the Novonikolaevsky district. This is due to the varying severity of degradation processes to the greatest extent manifested by dehumification. Alkalization and unfavourable acid-base regime of soils played a much lesser role.

Keywords: land degradation; neutral balance of land degradation; damage; ecological and economic assessment; Volgograd region.

Author Details: E. V. Tsvetnov, Cand. Sc. (Biol.), leading research fellow (e-mail: Этот адрес электронной почты защищён от спам-ботов. У вас должен быть включен JavaScript для просмотра.); O. A. Makarov, D. Sc. (Biol.), head of department, head of laboratory (e-mail: Этот адрес электронной почты защищён от спам-ботов. У вас должен быть включен JavaScript для просмотра.); O. B. Tsvetnova, Cand. Sc. (Biol.), leading research fellow (e-mail: Этот адрес электронной почты защищён от спам-ботов. У вас должен быть включен JavaScript для просмотра.); N. R. Kruichkov, post graduate student (e-mail: Этот адрес электронной почты защищён от спам-ботов. У вас должен быть включен JavaScript для просмотра.).

For citation: Tsvetnov EV, Makarov OA, Tsvetnova OB, et al. [Experience of combined assessment of the neutral balance of land degradation in the Volgograd region and environmental and economic damage inflicted to this land]. Dostizheniya nauki i tekhniki APK. 2021;35(1):12-5. Russian. doi: 10.24411/0235-2451-2021-10102.