Soil loss on the arable lands of the forest-steppe and steppe zones of European Russia and Siberia during the period of intensive agriculture

An assessment of the total soil loss from cultivated land was undertaken for the Chernozems–Kastanozems belt of European Russia and Siberia, based on the results of the National Soil Survey for administrative regions and the detailed study of three sentinel catchments, located in different parts of the Russian Plain. The soil profile truncation method was used to assemble data on soil erosion for the period of intensive agriculture, which ranged in duration between 110 and 230 years for the different parts of the sentinel study catchments and which had mean durations of 50–220 years for the total area of arable land comprising the administrative regions of Russia. The average value of the mean annual erosion rate for all regions of European Russia was estimated at 0.5 mm yr−1 for Chernozems and 0.4 mm yr−1 for Kastanozems, equivalent to ~6 t ha−1 yr−1 and ~4.8 t ha−1 yr−1, respectively. The total volume of soil eroded on arable lands during the period of ploughing, in the Chernozems–Kastanozems soil belt of Russia, amounted to 33.4 × 109 m3 (excluding sediment re-de-position on the arable land). The topography of arable slopes and the erosion index of precipitation are the critical factors determining the differences in the rates of soil loss, both at the level of small catchments and at regional level, while the duration of the ploughing period does not significantly affect the proportion of eroded land. The contribution of wind erosion to soil loss of the study regions located in the dry steppe zone is identified. It was established that the values of soil erosion rates obtained using the soil profile truncation method are in good agreement with the evaluation of soil erosion rates compiled during long-term monitoring of soil loss using runoff plots. Our rates of soil loss do not agree with recent estimates based on the revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE) for some administrative regions of European Russia with significant wind erosion.