Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
Problem Statement and Purpose. As a result of hostilities, soils are degraded due to disturbance, compaction, burning, contamination with munitions remnants, and toxic contamination. There are long-term consequences of the impact of munitions due to the ingress of so-called “potentially hazardous elements” into the soil. The most obvious is the violation of soil integrity as a result of mine and shell explosions, which has been called bombturbation. The purpose of the study is to determine the impact of artillery shell bursts, detonation of anti-tank (TM‑62) and anti-personnel (ПМН‑2) mines during demining of the territory by detonation, and combustion of munitions on the content and distribution of organic matter in soils, mobile phosphorus and potassium, as well as the potential biological activity of soils. Data & Methods. 17 sites were surveyed, including 3 sites each with craters from anti-tank and anti-personnel mines, two craters from 122- or 152-mm artillery shells, 2 sites with burnt soil, and 7 control sites. The study was carried out in August 2023 on the front line in the right-bank part of Kherson region on Calcic Chernozems, dark chestnut soils (Calcic Kastanozems) and soils of hydromorphic landscapes (Gleyic Kastanozems and Gleyic Fluvisol). Soil samples were collected in the centre of the crater, as well as at a distance of 1 m, 2 m and 3.5 (5) m from the centre of the crater. In the centre of each crater, a single sample was taken from the 0–15 cm soil layer, and the rest were mixed (6–8 single samples) from the 0–15, 15–30 and 30–45 cm horizons. Results. In craters caused by the detonation of anti-tank mines and artillery shells, deeper soil horizons with a lower (by 34–51%) organic matter content are exposed, with little mixing of the soil mass due to landslides and soil shedding. Such a destructive process should be described not as «bombturbation», but as «bomb erosion soils» – explosive cutting of the soil with the formation of sinkholes (cavernous relief) and the movement and dispersal of soil mass. Craters form socalled “limited structural element” – areas withbomb erosion soils that change homogeneous elemental soil habitats into sporadically patchy ones. Craters and sporadically patchy soil habitats in general are characterised by a distinct and regular heterogeneity in terms of organic matter, mobile phosphorus, exchangeable potassium and nitrification capacity. When detonating anti-personnel mines, there are no clear patterns of decrease or increase in the content of organic matter and nutrients. When demining an area by detonating mines, dry soils in the summer, which have a relatively higher density and hardness, are least damaged.
V. I. Mikhaylyuk (Thu,) studied this question.