Problems of Steppe Land Use Adaptation to Anthropogenic and Climatic Changes (the Case of Orenburg Oblast)

Among the Russian federal subjects located in the steppe zone, Orenburg Oblast is a typical steppe region with developed grain production. The traditional soil-intensive technologies practiced here for a long time and focused mainly on the mobilization of natural soil fertility have led to widespread steppe lands’ degradation, territory desiccation, a decrease in the productivity of agrocenoses, and a critical reduction of landscape and biological diversity. The purpose of the study was the analysis of modern challenges to sustainable steppe land use, identification of historical, technological, and climatic preconditions for reducing the lands’ quality and agricultural productivity (using the case of Orenburg Oblast), development and scientifically substantiating of methods of steppe land-use adaptation to modern soil and climate changes. Electronic free access data about climate resources and economic activity results, as well as expedition materials, were used. The analysis of the field cultivation effectiveness, the climatic trends identification, and the determination of their relationship were carried out in accordance with natural and agricultural zoning and lands’ agroecological grouping. The stable soil-intensive orientation of the current agricultural lands’ structure has been confirmed, as before. The extremely unfavorable dynamics of hydrothermal conditions has an expressed arid trend in the Trans-Volga and Kazakhstan areas of the steppe and dry-steppe zones of the region. It is accompanied by a decrease in the productivity of artificial and natural cenoses’ phytomass. There is a direct relationship between the productivity of field crops (spring wheat) with the amount of precipitation and the Selyaninov’s HTC during the growing season. Also, there is an inverse relationship with the sum of active temperatures. The legal, land management and technological problems of the land structure optimizing, obstructing the official change of land status, are systematized. The introduction of an adaptive strategic approach is proposed. The scientific theories optimizing steppe land use through adaptive landscape farming systems are analyzed, the probability of their implementation in current conditions is estimated. The use of nature-like agricultural technologies that contribute to more efficient natural resources’ use and sparing anthropogenic impact on adjacent landscapes is justified.

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