Impact of duration of land abandonment on soil properties

Abstract Abandonment of agricultural fields triggers the ecosystem recovery in the process referred to as secondary succession. The objective of this study was to find the impact of secondary succession during 12 years lasting abandonment of agricultural fields with loamy sand and sandy loam soils on soil properties, namely soil organic carbon content, pH, water and ethanol sorptivity, hydraulic conductivity, water drop penetration time (WDPT), and repellency index (RI). The method of space-for-time substitution was used so that the fields abandoned at different times were treated as a homogeneous chronosequence. The studied soils showed a permanent increase in WDPT and a monotonous decrease in pH and water sorptivity with the duration of field abandonment. The dependence of the other characteristics on the duration of field abandonment was not unambiguous. The ethanol sorptivity decreased between 0 and 8 years of field abandonment, and increased between 8 and 12 years, when it copied a similar course of sand content during abandonment. The hydraulic conductivity halved within the first eight years of field abandonment and then increased statistically insignificantly between 8 and 12 years of abandonment. The repellency index decreased statistically insignificantly between 0 and 8 years of abandonment and then increased between 8 and 12 years.