Evolution of Chernozems in the southern forest-steppe of the Central Russian upland under long-term cultivation examined in the agro-chronosequences

Chernozems are the major component of soil cover in the forest-steppe of the Central Russian Upland. They underwent the most significant anthropogenic transformation in terms of duration and scale of development in profiles, due to ploughing. Despite the long list of experimental works, the obtained conclusions are often contradictory. From our point of view, the best way to observe the effect of ploughing on Chernozems is the examination of soils with different durations of cultivation based on an agrochronosequence approach which was used in this study. The most appreciable changes occurred in the arable Chernozems for the first period after the beginning of cultivation. In the soils with 16 and