How withdrawing arable land affected the productive capacity of Haplic Kastanozems after 19 years of fallowing in dry steppes of the Ural piedmont

Abstract

The fertile arable lands in the dry steppe zone of the Ural piedmont, which were intensively used for cereal production for 30 years of the last century, have been withdrawn from cultivation and abandoned for the last 20 years. The Republic of Kazakhstan's new strategy to restore the productivity of natural pasture presents a challenge to scientists when it comes to restoring the natural soil properties to the natural pastoral conditions of the dark chestnut soils studied (Haplic Kastanozems). This chapter presents the results of a project devoted to investigating the changes in the soil's physical and chemical morphology due to the past cultivation history of Haplic Kastanozem soils that have been in a fallow state for the last 19 years. Some changes in the soils' morphological characteristics were caused by the changes in the soils' physical properties due to their past long-term cultivation. The changes observed in the soils' agrochemical characteristics were due to the changes in the soils' physical properties and to the past fertilization history. A minor increase in soil salinity was observed due to the greater accumulation of soluble salts in the arable layer of fallow soil compared to its virgin Haplic Kastanozem analogue. The changes and transitions in the vegetation composition need to be investigated further, and techniques should be developed for the accelerated restoration of fallow soils in dry-steppes of Western Kazakhstan.