The role of the ornithogenic factor in soil formation on the Antarctic oasis territory Bunger Hills (East Antarctica)

• Published in: EURASIAN JOURNAL OF SOIL SCIENCE (EJSS)
• Main Authors: Timur Nizamutdinov, Mikhail Andreev, Evgeny Abakumov
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Federation of Eurasian Soil Science Societies 2021
• Subjects: antarctic soils; ornitogenic soils; nutrients; Agriculture (General); S1-972; Antarctic; Bunger Hills; East Antarctica; Knox Coast; The Antarctic; Wilkes Land; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.18393/ejss.962538; https://doaj.org/article/f44c3376c37242109c0f5d823de11d7d

The study focuses on the ornithogenic factor of soil formation in Antarctic conditions. Since the traditional soil formation processes in Antarctic conditions are very limited, the relevance of studying the role of the ornithogenic factor is increasing. This article provides a comparative study of nutrient content and values of some physico-chemical parameters between ornithogenic and non-ornithogenic soils sampled at terrestrial ecosystems of the Antarctic oasis Bunger Hills (Knox Coast, Wilkes Land). The levels of key biogenic elements content have been estimated with special reference to ornitogenic factor of soil formation. A high content of available forms of phosphorus and potassium in ornithogenic and non-ornithogenic soils was found. According to the results of statistical analysis, we can see that the content of nutritional elements has a close significant correlation relationship (p<0.05). The analysis of variance showed that the content of available phosphorus and potassium varies weakly between soils of ornithogenic and non-ornithogenic genesis. The greatest variability depending on soil-forming processes is noted for basal respiration, pH and available forms of nitrogen.