Agriculturae Conspectus Scientificus, Vol 83, No 3 (2018)

Characteristics and Classification of Three Urban Soils in the Sisak City, Croatia

Stjepan HUSNJAK, Vedran RUBINIĆ, Josip HALAMIĆ, Ajka SORSA, Boris VRBEK

Pages: 231-238

Summary


Many soil classification systems (including Croatian Soil Classification - CSC) do not treat urban (technogenic) soils adequately. Moreover, in different parts the world, different names for similar urban soils are often used. All this hampers effective management of these increasingly important soils. The main aim was to classify three typical Sisak City soils according to CSC and international WRB system. Additional aim was to assess soil contamination by heavy metals. In two soil profiles pedogenetic A horizon was formed. Hence, according to CSC, we classified these soils as Rendzinas and not Technogenic soils. Given that CSC does not include a subtype of Rendzina on deposited land material, it was proposed. In one profile, topsoil organic matter accumulated mainly due to human activity, so it was classified according to CSC as a Deposol on land material. Since CSC offers no criteria for further systematization of Deposols, we proposed some. According to WRB, two soils were systemized as Technosols, but one was not. Namely, since one soil did not contain enough artefacts to qualify as a Technosol, it was classified as a complex (buried) soil (Regosol over Retisol). However, qualifier Relocatic could be used to indicate dominant human influence on this profile. Compared with CSC, WRB was more suitable for classifying these soils. Accordingly, CSC should be updated. According to the reference threshold for parks and recreational areas, heavy metals contents were below maximum allowed values in each soil. However, contents of some metals were over the threshold for agricultural soils.


Keywords


Technosols; Croatian soil classification system; WRB; Soil heavy metals

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