On August 8-13, 2023, the employees of the FRC V.V. Dokuchaev Soil Science Institute laid 7 test sites on typical chernozems for various types of agricultural land use at the test site in the Rostov Oblast (Persianovsky Settl., Verkhnegrushevsky Settl.) as part of the task for creating a network of test sites for monitoring carbon stock in the agricultural ecosystems.
Two test sites were laid in different types of mesorelief in the virgin Persianovskaya unmown steppe – an area that has never been plowed and can be used as a comparison standard in identifying the impact of economic use on carbon stock in the soil.
Two sites were laid on typical chernozems of the educational and production farm of DonSAU in fields with traditional technology for cultivating agricultural crops. The sites are located in landscape conditions close to virgin soil.
A separate important task is to identify the impact of direct seeding technology (without mechanical tillage) on carbon stocks in various natural and climatic conditions. For this purpose, two test sites were laid on typical chernozems near the Verkhnegrushevsky Settlement within the land use of the Individual Entrepreneur Head of Peasant Farming Enterprise V.I. Mokrikov. To compare the No-Till technology with the classical technology of crop cultivation, one site was laid in a similar landscape position. Photo 4 shows adjacent fields (on the left – No-Till, in the center – a separator, the field on the right – classic processing). A field with classical cultivation has a green background due to weeds that are absent in fields with direct sowing.
In total, the project collected 681 samples from the test site to determine organic carbon content and more than 200 samples to determine soil density. Soil samples for determination of organic carbon were collected at standard depths: 0-5 cm, 5-10 cm, 10-20 cm, and further in layers of 10 cm to a depth of 80-100 cm, depending on the thickness of the humus horizon.
Grigory Vasilyevich Mokrikov and Kamil Shagidullovich Kazeev, employees of the Southern Federal University of Rostov-on-Don, participated in the work.
The employees of the FRC express their deep gratitude to their colleagues from the Southern Federal University, Don State Agrarian University, Olga Georgievna Nazarenko for their assistance, and separately to Vasily Ivanovich Mokrikov for the warm welcome and support.