Age periods of the development of protective forest plantations in the restoration of eroded ravine and ravine lands

Abstract

At present, high-level attention is paid to the issues of the role, significance, optimal use of soils, their protection and combating degradation. By introducing the Sustainable Development Goals at the national level, Ukraine is obliged to introduce new programs and projects that, in practice, will have macroeconomic stability, ecological balance and social cohesion. During scientific research on the multifunctional role of protective forest plantations, which at one time were created on eroded territories, which include gully-ravine lands, to revive the properties of soils, work was carried out to substantiate their regenerative function. To achieve this goal, 90 soil-forest typological stations were established in erosion control plantations of various periods of plant growth and development with the selection of 270 soil samples. A study of their water-physical and agrochemical properties was carried out with the processing of the data obtained by statistical methods. Based on the analysis of scientific literary sources, the study of successful production experience and our own research on anti-erosion plantations to determine their impact on soil properties and the environment, qualitative stages of the ecological restoration of eroded soils have been developed. Changes in the age periods of growth and development of woody plants in protective forest plantations created on gully-ravine lands lead to a gradual step-by-step ecological restoration of eroded soils. Thus, a clear correlation of the age periods of growth and development of woody plants with the qualitative stages of ecological restoration of eroded soils was obtained. The selection of research objects provided for taking into account the same technology for creating anti-erosion plantings, growth and development in the same conditions, corresponding to five age periods of growth and development of woody plants. In each age period, qualitative changes occur during the growth and development of the vegetation cover, as well as quantitative changes in indicators characterizing the properties of the soil, which are presented in comparison with the control, which is the pasture. The main functions of these plantings are presented. Attention is paid to all age periods of growth and development of anti-erosion plantings in terms of forest measures for the successful cultivation of anti-erosion plantings and their effective action. The stages of ecological restoration of eroded territories are clearly consistent with the identified age periods. The prospects for understanding the process of restoring protective vegetation cover, including forest plantations, and their direct impact on the properties of eroded soils are opening up. Keywords: erosion processes, eroded soils, anti-erosion role, periods of development, qualitative stages, soil properties, hydraulic roughness.