Renaturalization of Ex-Arable Arenosols: Phytocenosis Development and the Dynamics of Sandy Soil Properties

Asta Kazlauskaite-Jadzevice (), Liudmila Tripolskaja and Eugenija Baksiene
Additional contact information
Asta Kazlauskaite-Jadzevice: Department of Light Soils and Crop Science, Voke Branch, Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry, Zalioji sq. 1, LT-02232 Vilnius, Lithuania
Liudmila Tripolskaja: Department of Light Soils and Crop Science, Voke Branch, Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry, Zalioji sq. 1, LT-02232 Vilnius, Lithuania
Eugenija Baksiene: Department of Light Soils and Crop Science, Voke Branch, Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry, Zalioji sq. 1, LT-02232 Vilnius, Lithuania

Land, 2023, vol. 12, issue 2, 1-15

Abstract: The abandonment of agricultural land has strong implications for the environment and societal wellbeing. Combining field monitoring data with a detailed analysis of the existing literature, we explored the potential factors impacting the variability of annual/biennial and perennial plant species. We identified plants covering sandy Arenosols under agricultural land use for at least 50 years as of 1995 in order to define a strategy for their restoration. The results of the study distinguished 81 different plant species and 23 botanical families spread over 27 years of land abandonment. The most dominant families were Asteraceae , Fabaceae , and Poaceae . The productivity of the abandoned land’s phytocenosis increased as the duration increased (r = 0.70). A positive relationship was established between the phytocenosis biomass and the number of cereal grass species (r = 0.44). The abandonment of the land had positive effects on soil fertility: the SOC concentration in the Ah horizon increased from 9.9 ± 0.08 to 14.5 ± 1.17 g kg −1 , the Ah thickness increased by 3 cm, and the SOC stocks increased by 24.51 Mg ha −1 . These results will allow us to study the vegetation dynamics in abandoned land and will serve as a basis for the selection of appropriate species in eventual restoration projects.

Keywords: natural grassland; vegetation succession changes; soil properties (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/2/271/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/2/271/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:12:y:2023:i:2:p:271-:d:1039281

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().