Trends in soil changes in the south-west of the Belgorod region

The analysis of the Landsat 5 satellite data helped to study the processes of soil changes which took place from 1991 to 2011 inclusively at the test site located in the south-west of the Belgorod Region. As a result, it was found that despite intensive agricultural land use the proportion of soils, the properties of which have changed over the past 20 years, within the total area studied is quite small. The changes of soil erosion status were recorded within the territory of no more than 1 % of the total area; the territories characterized by soil humus losses on subhorizontal surfaces cover no more than 2 % of considered area. The most intensive process among the others is humus accumulation in the soil, the increase in humus content is noted on 5.6 % of the analyzed area. The identified tendencies in soil changes may be due to both the specifics of agricultural land use and climate changes.