Joint International Conference on Long-term Experiments ...

CONCLUSIONS
The physical degradation, biochemical and biological parameters showed strong
relationships on the studied erosion catena. With erosion and decreasing depth of the
humus layers most investigated other parameters showed degradation.
The number and the abundance of Collembola were investigated in this study along a
transect representing different levels of erosion and soil degradation (organic matter
decrease, soil compaction, etc.). We found that along a transect the abundance of
springtails has significant decreasing tendency with increasing level of degradation. The
results suggest that soil degradation affects strongly the collembolan community. In
case of the eroded area we experienced higher pH (above 7) because of the distance of
the calcareous parent material from the soil surface were less than the other sites. This
result suggests that due to degradation processes soil moisture conditions strongly affect
the belowground animal communities, such as springtails.
The examined enzyme activities are important information to characterize the measure
of soil degradation. The land degradation seems to be a key factor for variation in the
behaviour of the examined enzyme.
The physical, chemical parameters compared to the biological parameters showed the
following correlations: the physical features are more resistant to changes in soils
compared to the biological aspects, thus, it is assumed that the biological parameters can
be used as early indicators.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
INDEX Nr. GOCE-CT-2003-505450
Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA – Nr. D 048592)
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