Soil Cover of the City of Lublin (Eastern Poland)

Abstract

Lublin is a voivodeship city located in the Lublin Upland (Eastern Poland). The study aimed to present the spatial differentiation of soils of the city of Lublin and some of their properties. The knowledge of soil cover is very important for spatial planning and for protection and proper use of soil resources of each city. The environmental-genetic map of Lublin’s soils included in this work was made on the basis of soil-agricultural map in the scale 1:25 000 of Lublin and the soil-habitat map of the Świdnik Forest District. The soil units distinguished on the map were classified according to the Systematics of Soils of Poland (2019) and the international soil classification (World Reference Base for Soil Resources, WRB). The spatial variability of Lublin’s soils is determined by the occurrence of different parent rocks, relief, water relations, vegetation cover and human activities. The main soil units occurring within the city of Lublin include: brown soils (WRB: Eutric/Dystric Cambisols), rusty soils (Brunic Arenosols), podzolic soils (Albic Podzols), clay-illuvial soils/lessive soils (WRB: Albic/Haplic Luvisols), black earths (WRB: Gleyic Phaeozems), chernozemic rendzinas (WRB: Rendzic Phaeozems) and brown rendzinas (WRB: Calcaric Cambisols), chernozemic/black alluvial soils (WRB: Fluvic Phaeozems) and ordinary alluvial soils (WRB: Dystric/Eutric Fluvisols), peat soils (WRB: Hemic/Sapric Histosols) and murshic soils (WRB: Murshic Histosols), and technogenic soils (WRB: Urbic/Spolic/Ekranic Technosols). The grain size composition of Lublin’s soils is quite diverse, with the most common being silts, loams and sands with varying proportions of skeletal parts. The reaction of the Lublin soils studied also varies. Very acidic and acidic reaction is present mainly in podzolic and rusty soils and typical acid brown soils. In contrast, proper brown soils are slightly acidic to neutral in the upper genetic horizons. Lessive soils also have an acid reaction in the upper genetic horizons. Fluvisols have a slightly acidic to alkaline reaction, and black earths have a neutral to alkaline reaction. The alkaline reaction is found in rendzinas and technogenic soils, in which significant amounts of calcium carbonate are present. Soil organic matter is mainly accumulated in organic soils (peat and muck soils), as well as in the surface organic horizons (O) of forest soils. In the mineral soils of Lublin, the highest content of organic carbon (C-org) was found in such soils as black earths, chernozemic rendzinas, chernozemic alluvial soils and in some technogenic soils. The usable quality of Lublin’s soils is high. There is a phenomenon of management of land with high bonitation classes for non-agricultural purposes, despite the high fees for excluding such land from agricultural production.