Search Results (70)

The change in the socio-political formation of Russia from a socialist planned system to a capitalist market system significantly influenced agriculture and one of its components—arable land. The loss of the sustainability of land management for arable land led to a reduction in sown areas by 38% (from 119.7 to 74.7 million ha) and a synchronous drop in gross harvests of grain and leguminous crops by 48% (from 117 to 61 million tons). The situation stabilized in 2020, with a sowing area of 80.2 million ha and gross harvests of grain and leguminous crops of 120–150 million tons. This process was not formalized legally, and the official (legal) area of arable land decreased by only 8% from 132.8 to 122.3 million ha. Legal conflict arose for 35 million ha for unused arable land, for which there was no classification of its condition categories and no monitoring of the withdrawal time of the arable land from actual agricultural use. The aim of this study was to resolve the challenges in the method of retrospective monitoring of soil–land cover, which allowed for the achievement of the aims of the investigation—to elucidate the history of land use on arable lands from 1985 to 2025 with a time step of 5 years and to obtain a detailed classification of the arable lands’ abandonment degrees. It was also established that on most of the abandoned arable land, carbon sequestration occurs in the form of secondary forests. In the course of this work, it was shown that the reasons for the formation of an array of abandoned arable land and the stabilization of agricultural production turned out to be interrelated. The abandonment of arable land occurred proportionally to changes in the soil’s natural fertility and the degree of land degradation. Economically unprofitable lands spontaneously (without centralized planning) left the sowing zone. The efficiency of land use on the remaining lands has increased and has allowed for the mass application of modern farming systems (smart, precise, landscape-adaptive, differentiated, no-till, strip-till, etc.), which has further increased the profitability of crop production. The prospect of using abandoned lands as a carbon sequestration zone in areas of forest overgrowth has arisen. Full article

Non-Native Tree Species (NNTs) play crucial roles in global and European forests. However, in the Czech Republic, NNTs represent a tiny fraction of the forested areas due to limited research on their potential use. The country is actively afforesting abandoned agricultural lands; NNTs which are already tested and certified could enhance the country’s forestry system. This study aimed to evaluate the initial growth of Castanea sativa, Platanus acerifolia, and Corylus colurna under three soil treatments on abandoned agricultural soil, evaluate the survival and mortality of the tree species, and further compare the soil dynamics among the three ecosystems to describe the initial state and short-term changes in the soil environment. The research plot was set in the Doubek area, 20 km East of Prague. Moreover, soil-improving materials, Humac (1.0 t·ha⁻¹) and Alginite (1.5 t·ha⁻¹), were established on the side of the control plot at the afforested part. The heights of plantations of tree species were measured from 2020 to 2024. Furthermore, 47 soil samples were collected at varying depths from three ecosystems (afforested soil, arable land, and old forest) in 2022. A single-factor ANOVA was run, followed by a post hoc test. The result shows that the Control-C plot (Castanea Sativa + Platanus acerifolia + Corylus colurna + agricultural soil without amendment) had the highest total growth (mean annual increment in the year 2024) for Castanea sativa (KS = 40.90 ± a21.61) and Corylus colurna (LS = 55.62 ± 59.68); Alginite-A (Castanea Sativa + Platanus acerifolia + Corylus colurna + Alginite) did best for Platanus acerifolia (PT = 39.85 ± 31.52); and Humac-B (Castanea Sativa + Platanus acerifolia + Corylus colurna + Humac) had the lowest growth. Soil dynamics among the three ecosystems showed that the old forest (plot two) significantly differs from arable soil (plot one), Humac and Platanus on afforested land (plot three), Platanus and Alginite on afforested land (plot four), and Platanus without amendment (plot five) in horizon three (the subsoil or horizon B) and in horizon four (the parent material horizon or horizon C). Results document the minor response of plantations to soil-improving matters at relatively rich sites, good growth of plantations, and initial changes in the soil characteristics in the control C plot. We recommend both sparing old forests and the afforestation of abandoned agricultural soils using a control treatment for improved tree growth and sustained soil quality. Further studies on the species’ invasiveness are needed to understand them better. Full article

The coastal region of Klaipėda (Lithuania) has experienced major political, economic, social, and cultural transformations since the 20th century. Landscapes as evolving expressions of land use and land cover patterns offer a valuable lens to analyse these changes. This study examines the evolution of physical landscape structures across the pre-Soviet, Soviet, and post-Soviet periods, using historical maps and open-access geospatial data. An ontological approach, combined with morphological and configurational metrics, reveals four major and relatively persistent landscape structures: hydrological systems (sea, lagoon, rivers), forest cover, farming intensity (from extensive grassland use to intensive arable farming), and semi-natural environments. Their structural evolution reflects broader cultural factors, such as contrasting land use traditions between former Prussian and Russian territories. The study also highlights the impact of Soviet collectivisation, marked by irrigation networks, agricultural intensification, and forest expansion. The post-Soviet period is characterised by widespread farmland abandonment and fragmentation, revealing new spatial dynamics and challenges in land reappropriation. Landscape transformations are predominantly structured around agricultural dynamics. Although the analysis was limited by the incomplete availability of data for this specific land use class, the centrality of agriculture in shaping territorial organisation is evident and reinforces the strong rural identity associated with the landscape. Full article

Small mammals are common in farmland, where their communities are affected by agricultural management. However, so far, no clear patterns have emerged, its effect varying in accordance with the ecological context, spatial scale, and geographic area. We aimed to assess whether the discontinuation of land cultivation and pasture grazing leads to significant changes in the abundance, diversity, and composition of small mammal communities. These were surveyed in transects of live traps set in used and abandoned arable fields and pastures in highly patched agricultural landscapes in Transylvania (Romania). Farmland abandonment was positively related to species richness, taxonomic and functional diversity, and abundance. Its effect was stronger in pastures, where intensive grazing is a limiting factor for small mammals. Functional trait composition was also sensitive to fallowing and abandonment of grazing, which promote diurnal activity, broader niches, and lower fertility. In conclusion, small mammals benefit from the maintenance of uncultivated plots and low numbers of grazing livestock, which we recommend as management strategy in traditional mosaic landscapes, to support taxonomic and functional biodiversity with implications in ecosystem service functionality. Our results also revealed more diverse communities than those showcased by similar studies in central and western Europe, with similar overall abundances. Full article

Gradual reforestation and transformation of both vegetation and soils characterize post-agricultural landscapes, which form after the abandonment of arable land. The change in content and vertical distribution of available K and P was analysed by stages in sandy and loamy soils in the north-west of the Smolensk region, forming two chronosequences of pine and spruce succession, mainly in triplicates. During natural succession, from the earliest to the later stages, the content of available P and K decreased in soils due to a reduction in the amount and diversity of plant remains and the downward movement of soluble substances. The loss of available P from the uppermost 0–5 cm topsoil layer was more pronounced than that of K because its leaching in the late successional stages was not compensated by plant uptake. The distribution of nutrients was found to be significantly influenced by forest type, successional stage, and soil proxies. The distribution of available K showed greater stability across successional stages and was influenced by forest type and pH. Available P showed greater variation with forest type and succession stages. Full article

The abandonment of agricultural land is now considered one of the primary land use changes driven by complex interactions between social, economic, and environmental factors. To understand and manage this process, a holistic approach that integrates multidimensional methodologies and interactions is essential. This study examines the key driving factors behind agricultural land abandonment in Lithuania using two methodological approaches. First, seventeen highly qualified land management experts were surveyed, and their insights were analysed using in-depth qualitative interviews, focusing on agricultural land abandonment and its underlying factors. Second, the development of agricultural land abandonment in a representative Lithuanian municipality was modelled using Markov chain models, incorporating freely available geographic data as factors influencing land use transformation. Actual areas of abandoned agricultural land were mapped using orthophotos from 2012, 2018, and 2021, for both model development and validation. The importance of predictors in the model was then assessed in relation to their significance as drivers of agricultural land abandonment. The findings indicate that natural factors, such as the proximity of forests and topographical constraints, play a significant role in explaining land abandonment processes. Additionally, agricultural land abandonment is influenced by social, economic, and legal factors, including land ownership structures, migration, and infrastructure accessibility. The importance of soil quality, productivity, and the presence of nearby arable land was found to vary depending on data accuracy and local environmental conditions, highlighting the complexity of agricultural land use patterns. The chosen mixed-method approach, combining qualitative surveys with numerical spatial modelling, demonstrates potential for identifying critical land use areas and providing insights to improve land management policies and decision making. Full article

Numerous research studies have long established the causes and consequences of the depopulation of certain regions in Europe, but it seems that there are no systematic approaches to implementing the policy of managing abandoned areas. Following years of demographic decline in settlements, the 2022 census revealed depopulated clusters in Serbia—regions with 20 or fewer residents or even no inhabitants at all. The areas of depopulated settlements are growing territorially from the south towards the north. This paper adopts a broader interpretation of brownfield land, defining it as any previously used land that is no longer employed for commercial purposes, serving as the theoretical foundation. Although they seem economically hopeless, some depopulated clusters have become the subject of research for the exploitation of mineral resources such as gold, copper, zinc, uranium, lithium and coal. The main problem is that depopulated clusters have acquired an ecological stability that would be disrupted by the opening of mines and massive construction. The changes in land use were analyzed using time series data and a formal database of natural resources from these communities. The primary methodological framework was based on the correlation between population size, utilized areas, and the ecological stability coefficient. This study aimed to explore the relationship between the proportion of arable land within a spatial unit and its depopulation rate while also examining how arable land and mineral resources could influence the potential revitalization of rural wastelands in Serbia’s depopulated areas. The primary findings indicate a significant correlation between population decline and changes in the natural environment of abandoned clusters, as well as the significant potential of clusters as rural brownfields. While it is natural to continue with ecological and green space projects, the current liberal and centralized mining management policy can create major problems for the remaining population. Full article

Agricultural land is a key resource for territorial resilience. In the European context, fertile soils are under pressure not only from urbanisation processes, abandonment and the establishment of non-agricultural uses but also from agriculture that is not well adapted to territorial resources. In order to inform urban planning, a methodology is proposed and applied to the Madrid region to analyse the suitability of agricultural land uses with respect to agrological quality. The majority of agricultural uses in the region are well adapted to the agroecological quality of the land; larger areas of over-exploited land are located along some of the region’s rivers and in the Campiña, while under-utilised land is mainly found in the south-west and in the metropolitan comarcas. This methodology is based on official and open-access information, so it can be easily replicated and used to inform land planning. We propose three strategies depending on the suitability of land use: the introduction of crops in priority areas for horticulture or arable crops, agricultural protection areas and ecological regeneration areas. Full article

Grasses can sustain soil functions despite nutrient depletion, which can have serious consequences for soil processes and ecosystem services. This paper summarizes the results of the long-term experiment (1995–2024) carried out in Arenosol within a temperate climate zone, focusing on the productivity of natural and managed grasslands; their succession changes over time, and so do the effects on soil chemical properties, and soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration. The results indicated that two land uses—abandoned land (AL) and grassland fertilized with mineral fertilizers (MGf)—can be effectively applied to prevent Arenosol soil degradation. SOC accumulation occurs more rapidly in AL soils, and their chemical properties show less change over time. The ability of grasses to sequester SOC is better reflected by SOC stocks across the Ah horizon, where thickness varies over long-term grassland use. Significant changes in soil properties were observed more than 20 years after converting arable to herbaceous land use. While MGf has the highest biomass productivity, the use of fertilizers leads to soil acidification. The biomass productivity of AL and MGf increased with longer grassland use; however, in MG, productivity decreased without fertilizers, reaching AL’s productivity levels after 20 years. As the age of AL increased, plant biodiversity decreased, and drought-resistant plants began to spread. Full article

Abandoned agricultural lands in the Middle Volga region of Russia, which appeared because of socio-economic transformations after the collapse of the USSR and the liquidation of collective farms, represent a significant potential for increasing agricultural production and economic development of the region. This study develops a comprehensive approach to assessing the suitability of these lands for return to agricultural turnover using machine learning methods and remote sensing data. Sentinel-2 satellite imagery and a deep neural network based on MAnet architecture with Mix Vision Transformer encoder (MiT-b5), which achieved an accuracy of 93.4% and an IoU coefficient of 0.84, were used for semantic segmentation of modern agricultural land. Land use dynamics since 1985 were analysed using Landsat 4–9 data, revealing significant areas of abandoned arable land. Land suitability was assessed, taking into account natural resource factors such as topography, soils and climatic conditions. The results showed that the total area of land suitable for reclaimed land is 2,014,845 ha, which could lead to an increase in wheat yield by 7.052 million tons. The potential cumulative net profit is estimated at 35.26 billion rubles (about US$352.6 million). The main conclusions indicate the significant economic and social potential of returning abandoned land to agricultural turnover, which requires a comprehensive approach that includes investment in infrastructure and the introduction of modern agro-technologies. Full article

The outbreak of Russia-Ukraine conflict casted an impact on the global food market, which was believed to be attributed to that Ukraine has suffered significant production losses due to cropland abandonment. Nevertheless, recent outbreaks of farmer protests against Ukraine’s grain exports demonstrated that the production losses might not be as severe as previous estimates. By utilizing the adaptive threshold segmentation method to extract abandoned cropland from the Sentinel-2 high-resolution imagery and calibrating the spatial production allocation model’s gridded crop production data from Ukraine’s statistical data, this study explicitly evaluated Ukraine’s crop-specific production losses and the spatial heterogeneity. The results demonstrated that the estimated area of abandoned cropland in Ukraine ranges from 2.34 to 2.40 million hectares, constituting 7.14% to 7.30% of the total cropland. In Ukrainian-controlled zones, this area spans 1.44 to 1.48 million hectares, whereas in Russian-occupied areas, it varies from 0.90 to 0.92 million hectares. Additionally, the total production losses for wheat, maize, barley, and sunflower amount to 1.92, 1.67, 0.70, and 0.99 million tons, respectively, with corresponding loss ratios of 9.10%, 7.48%, 9.54%, and 8.67%. Furthermore, production losses of wheat, barley, and sunflower emerged in both the eastern and southern states adjacent to the conflict frontlines, while maize losses were concentrated in the western states. The findings imply that Ukraine ought to streamline the food transportation channels and maintain stable agricultural activities in regions with high crop production. Full article

This research investigates the effects of land use/land cover (LULC) and demographical changes on runoff and erosion processes in the watersheds of border highlands in Serbia. It provides an interdisciplinary approach, linking demography (human geography) with physical geography (hydrology and geomorphology). (A) A predominant decrease in curve number (CN), a key hydrological indicator, is recorded in more than 20 watersheds in Eastern and Southeastern Serbia, largely due to continuous depopulation and abandonment of arable land over recent decades. In contrast, minor CN changes are dominant in over 10 watersheds in Western and Southwestern Serbia. (B) Through cluster analysis, four regions are spatially delineated by changes in four key indicators: runoff, soil erosion, agricultural land use, and rural population. Soil erosion change is correlated with the deagrarianisation and depopulation processes at a significance of p < 0.0001 with r = 0.580 and r = 0.629, respectively. The border watersheds are being studied for the first time using a complex approach that analyses the relationships between changes in demography, land use, surface runoff, and soil erosion. The study results contribute to a better understanding of sustainable land management and risk management in the hilly and mountainous border regions, which are particularly vulnerable to torrential flooding and soil erosion. Full article

It is important to ensure the ratio of stable and labile soil organic carbon (SOC) compounds in the soil as this influences ecosystem functions and the sustainability of soil management. The aim of this investigation was to determine the changes in SOC compounds and soil quality improvement in Arenosol soil after the conversion of arable land to natural and agricultural land use. The land use types included pine afforestation (PA), uncultivated abandoned land (UAL), unfertilised and fertilised cropland (CLunf, CLf), and unfertilised and fertilised grassland (GRunf, GRf). To assess the lability of organic carbon (OC) compounds, levels of mobile humic substances (MHSs), mobile humic acids (MHAs), mobile fulvic acids (MFAs), active C pool (POXC), and water-soluble C (WEOC) compounds were determined. It was found that faster OC accumulation occurs in PA soil than in CLf, and is somewhat slower in grassland uses (GRf and UAL). As the amount of SOC increased, more MHS formed. A significant increase in their quantity was found in PA (+92.2%) and CRf and UAL (+51.5–52.7%). The application of mineral fertilisers promoted the formation of MHSs in CLf and GRf. PA, GRunf, and GRf soils had more suitable conditions for MHA formation (MHA/MFA > 1.3), whereas CLunf soil contained more MFAs. The POXC pool was insensitive to land-use changes in the Arenosol. After land-use conversion, POXC amounts were significantly (p < 0.05) higher in natural ecosystems (UAL and PA) and fertiliser perennial grasses than in CL. The amount of WEOC increased the most in UAL, PA, and GRf (7.4–71.1%). The sequence of decrease in land use was GRf, UAL, and PA > CLunf, CLf, and GRunf. The decreasing order of the carbon management index (CMI) of different land uses (PA > UAL > GRf > GRunf > Clunf) confirms that faster OC accumulation in Arenosol soil occurred in PA and grassland land uses (GRf and UAL). The values of the carbon lability index (CLI) variation (CLunf > GRunf GRf > UAL > PA) show that in PA, UAL, and GRf land uses, mobile organic matter (OM) forms are relatively less formed, which stabilises OC accumulation in the soil. The CMI showed that UAL and GRf were the most suitable soil uses for Arenosol soils. Full article

With the growing trend of arable land abandonment, the potential threat to the security of the food supply has sparked public concern. In order to examine the impact of non-agricultural employment on food security, this study builds linear regression models for research based on panel data from counties in China’s old revolutionary base areas. The empirical results show that, although the impact of non-agricultural employment on total grain production is not significant, it has a significant negative impact on both area and productivity, which indicates that non-agricultural employment poses a challenge to food security. In addition, the study examines the potential benefits of non-farm employment on two aspects of food security, including intensive management and the increase of new business entities. Non-farm employment can also significantly promote intensive management, thereby reducing the food-security challenges brought by non-farm employment, while the benefits of new management entities are insignificant. These findings contribute to the optimization of economic policies related to agricultural development, including exploring land property rights reform systems to promote land transfer, strengthening labor quality improvement in the agricultural sector, and formulating supporting policies to stabilize non-agricultural employment in accordance with local conditions. Full article

Clarifying the relationship between urbanization and farmland abandonment in urban agglomerations (UAs) is crucial to guide the formulation of arable land management policies and strategies for sustainable urban development. Despite numerous studies confirming the correlation between farmland abandonment and certain urbanization factors, the exploration of the patterns and underlying mechanisms of farmland abandonment in China’s UAs remains worthy of systematic investigation. In this study, we conducted an analysis of the spatiotemporal trends in farmland abandonment and examined the key drivers of farmland abandonment in four representative Chinese UAs—Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH), Chengdu–Chongqing (CC), Pearl River Delta (PRD), and Yangtze River Delta (YRD). Our findings reveal that farmland abandonment has been intensified with increasing fragmentation and aggregation patches across these UAs. Abandonment experience was the main driver of continuous abandonment. Moreover, natural conditions persistently influenced farmland abandonment in the BTH, while land urbanization and economic urbanization were predominant drivers in the CC. The abandonment in the PRD was mainly driven by population urbanization, while the abandonment in the YRD was primarily driven by economic urbanization and land urbanization. The research findings provide data support and scientific explanation for land policy-making in these typical UAs under different development strategies. Full article