Impact of duration of land abandonment on soil properties

Abstract Abandonment of agricultural fields triggers the ecosystem recovery in process referred to as secondary succession. The objective this study was find impact succession during 12 years lasting abandonment with loamy sand and sandy loam soils on soil properties, namely organic carbon content, pH, water ethanol sorptivity, hydraulic conductivity, drop penetration time (WDPT), repellency index (RI). method space-for-time substitution used so that abandoned at different times were treated a homogeneous chronosequence. studied showed permanent increase WDPT monotonous decrease pH sorptivity duration field abandonment. dependence other characteristics not unambiguous. decreased between 0 8 abandonment, increased years, when it copied similar course content conductivity halved within first eight then statistically insignificantly years.