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Soil erosion is a problem that affects the landscape at different scales and represents a serious challenge for land management and soil conservation in both natural forests and meadows. The aim of this study was to determine how the parent material and land use affect the physical and chemical properties of the soil in the area of the Fruška Gora Mountain. The soils were separated into five bedrock types: serpentinite, marl, trachyte, shale, loess and two land use types: forest and meadow. Twenty-three forest soil and 24 meadow soil from a depth of 0–20 cm were sampled from the Fruška Gora Mt. The following properties were determined: pH, electrical conductivity, oxidationreduction potential, content of organic carbon, sodium adsorption ratio, aggregate size and stability. There is no statistically significant difference in pH values, redox potential (Eh), electrical conductivity (EC) and sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) values between the analysed forest and meadow soils, but there is a statistically significant difference in the content of organic carbon (Corg). It can be concluded that both the parent material, and to a slightly less extent, land use have a great influence on physico-chemical properties of the soil.

Biological markers (BMs) are organic compounds in oils in which a precursor is known, and during the transformation of organic matter these compounds undergo certain structural and stereochemical changes. Based on the established precursors of BMs, the origin of the examined oils can be estimated, and based on the intensity and the type of changes and also geological history. It includes defining the deposition medium, the degree of maturation, the length of the oil migration path, the degree of biodegradation. The most studied and applied BMs are normal alkanes, isoprenoid aliphatic alkanes pristane and phytane, and polycyclic alkanes of the sterane and terapane type. On the other hand, in the environmental chemistry, these compounds can significantly contribute to the identification of petroleum pollutants, as well as to the assessment of the migration mechanism and the intensity of biodegradation. This review paper first presents the results related to the application of BMs in the organic geochemical correlations of oil in the south-eastern part of the Pannonian Basin (I). The second part provides an overview of those researches in which the same BMs were used in the identification of oil pollutants and in monitoring their changes during the migration and the biodegradation in rivers and river sediments of Serbia (II).

The objective of the study was to determine the origin and type of organic matter (OM) of the Tisza recent sediments along the distance of 153 km through the territory of Serbia. For this purpose group organic-geochemical parameters and biomarker compositions were used. All samples contain approximately same amount of OM, which was deposited under uniform, slightly reducing conditions. Based on the distribution of n-alkanes, the origin and type of OM could not be precisely estimated. However, n-alkane patterns suggest the presence of immature singenetic organic matter of terrestrial origin. Distributions of terpanes and steranes and values of corresponding maturity parameters indicate that Tisza River sediments, apart from immature singenetic organic matter, contain oil pollutant of anthropogenic origin. Identical composition of these biomarkers in all samples confirms that the recent sediments of the Tisza River, from Kanjiža town to the confluence into the Danube River, contain the same type of oil pollutant. Based on the compositions of terpanes and steranes and values of biomarker parameters in Tisza sediments, it is supposed that oil pollution generally could be related to heavy fuel oil from tankers due to intense river transport and, in lower extent, to crude oils from the Elemir and Rusanda oil fields. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 176006 i 176019]