Identification of nature, steering factors and indicators of soil degradation for the forest steppe zone of Bashkortostan

Within the project "Causes and effects of natural and man-made soil degradation in Bashkortostan - basic investigations for sustainable agricultural management strategies in semiarid regions (project manager Prof. Dr. M. Frühauf , Institute of Geosciences, workgroup Geoecology, Martin-Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg), different tasks and theses should be developed for PhD- qualification.

Main topics are the development and evaluation of indicators of soil degradation in the forest steppe zone of Bashkortostan. In this process measurements for quantification of soil degradation and soil water balance under different land use will take place. Natural soils of the forest steppe zone of Bashkortostan will act as reference. Furthermore relationships between climate parameters, soil properties, soil water budgets/ dynamics and yield development will be investigated. Developing of a GIS structure gather the main causal connections between land use, soil degradation patterns and soil erosion. In addition spatial and temporal analyses of yield development and soil quality will describe.

It is note one of the most important tasks will be the regionalization from farm scale to the rayon level as step towards the regionalization of the whole forest steppe zone.

These activities should be a contribution to development of regionally adapted strategies for soil protection and sustainable land use.