Edifisols—A New Soil Unit of Technogenic Soils
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J Soils Sediments DOI 10.1007/s11368-014-0983-4 SOILS AND SEDIMENTS IN URBAN AND MINING AREAS Edifisols—a new soil unit of technogenic soils Przemysław Charzyński & Piotr Hulisz & Renata Bednarek & Agnieszka Piernik & Marta Winkler & Marcin Chmurzyński Received: 7 January 2014 /Accepted: 10 September 2014 # The Author(s) 2014. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract contamination. The results of the statistical analysis Purpose A very specific type of urban soils forms on build- showed that climate was not a key factor in differenti- ings. They are developed from or on technogenic substrates. ation of the studied soils. The properties of Edifisols are This work was conducted to assess properties of Edifisols linked to their position on the buildings. Edifisols in occurring in different regions of Europe and northwest concave forms differ from those located on vertical and Africa. Proposals are made for the terminology used and the horizontal surfaces. Stages of the development of systematic position of the investigated soils in the World Edifisols are presented taking into account the function- Reference Base for Soil Resources. ing of the building in the course of time. Materials and methods The research was carried out in 2009– Conclusions Edifisols are formed as a result of initial, 2012 in seven countries. Samples (23 in total) were acciden- relatively natural soil-forming processes occurring on tally collected from 15 municipalities of different size and man-made substrates. Therefore, they may be considered function ranging from villages, small tourist resorts through as technogenic analogues of natural initial or weakly medium-sized regional centres to metropolises. Soil material developed soils (Rendzic Leptosols, Folic Histosols was collected from two types of building components: hori- and ornithogenic soils). They are often ephemeral soils zontal (roofs, tops of the buildings, bridge surfaces; 17 sam- susceptible to the influx of various contaminants. Due ples) and vertical (cracks and gaps in the walls; six samples). to specific location, genesis and properties, the qualifier Soil materials were submitted to standard physical and chem- Edific is proposed to supplement the next edition of ical analyses to determine selected soil properties. For statis- World Reference Base (WRB). tical analysis, STATISTICA 9.0 software was used. Results and discussion The studied soils were very shallow, Keywords Heavy metals . Soil classification . Technogenic with the maximum thickness up to 10 cm. In the light of this soils . Technosols . Urban ecosystems study, several properties of the Edifisols should be regarded as characteristic, i.e. richness in artefacts and carbonates, very varied content of organic carbon (OC) and total nitrogen (Nt), 1 Introduction elevated phosphorus content (Pca) and heavy metal Human activity increasingly affects the natural environ- Responsible editor: Jean Louis Morel ment. In 1900, only 13 % of the world’s population : : : : P. Charzyński (*) P. Hulisz R. Bednarek M. Winkler lived in the cities (Saier 2007), but by 2011, the per- M. Chmurzyński centage had increased to 52 % (United Nations 2013). Department of Soil Science and Landscape Management, Faculty of Huge changes in the soil cover and soil processes can Earth Sciences, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Lwowska 1, 87-100 Toruń, Poland be observed in different cities around the world (Effland e-mail: [email protected] and Pouyat 1997;ElKhaliletal.2013). The urban ecosystem is characterised by new types of human- A. Piernik made systems resulted from degradation, destruction Department of Geobotany and Landscape Planning, Faculty of Biology and Environment Protection, Nicolaus Copernicus and/or substitution of natural systems (Stroganova University, Lwowska 1, 87-100 Toruń,Poland et al. 1998). Such ecosystem alterations are also J Soils Sediments identified as an ‘urban stream syndrome’.Thisterm niches for various microbes (Hyvärinen et al. 2002), describes the consistently observed ecological degrada- which support the growth of higher plants. Studies of tion of streams draining the urban land (Walsh et al. Millard (2004) and Fornal-Pieniak and Chyliński (2012) 2005). showed that the establishment of plant communities on The research on pedogenesis in the urban environ- abandoned buildings is entirely spontaneous. ment intensified in the 1990s. The urban soils can be The initial study of the soils forming on buildings defined as bodies located in urban ecosystems, which was conducted in Toruń,PolandbyCharzyńskietal. include a substrate formed by human activity (Blume (2011a) and Charzyński and Hulisz (2013). The authors 1989;Burghardt1994). According to Sobocká (2003), proposed a new term to describe these soils, i.e. this term can be also considered as a general termino- Edifisols (Latin aedificium = building). This paper is a logical concept for soils occurring in urbanised, indus- continuation and extension of the scope of these studies trial, traffic, mining and military areas (SUITMA). The which aimed to characterize Edifisols occurring in dif- main factor for differentiation of SUITMAs from other ferent regions of Europe and northwest Africa. It was soils is their location in the abovementioned areas. assumed that most properties of the soils will not vary Therefore, the grouping of SUITMAs is found upon much depending on the climatic conditions. However, the management system which is an entirely different taking into account that similar building materials are concept as opposed to soils used for agricultural pur- used all over the world, the main differentiating factor poses. The similar approach was used in the World should be the location within various types of structural Reference Base for Soil Resources to distinguish elements of a building. That is why, these still pilot Technosols (IUSS Working Group WRB 2007; 2014). studies, on the international scale, took into account They are defined as soils whose properties and pedo- the heterogeneity of Edifisols. They allowed the initial, genesis are dominated by their technical origin, having more qualitative than quantitative assessment of the a significant amount of artefacts,orageomembrane,or diversity of morphology and properties of these soils. are sealed with technic hard material (IUSS Working Moreover, for easier and better communication in the soil Group WRB 2014). science community, proposals are made for the terminology A very specific type of urban soils develops on used and the systematic position of the investigated soils in the buildings. Already in 1840, Vasily Dokuchaev, the ma- in the next edition of World Reference Base for Soil jor precursor in the field of soil science, mentioned the Resources. This classification is subject to a constant process soils formed on the walls of an abandoned 12-century of evaluation and improvement, also in the group of fortress (Karpachevskiy 1983). On the other hand, Technosols (Séré et al. 2010;Charzyńskietal.2011b; Charles Darwin (1890) was the first scientist who de- Uzarowicz and Skiba 2011;Charzyński et al. 2013). scribed in details the soils formed on the buried ruins of the ancient Roman buildings. While examining the im- pact of worms on the formation of soil layers (moulds), 2 Study area the author stated that they play a key role in the partial decomposition of raw organic matter. Their activity ac- The research was carried out in seven countries and at 15 celerates the weathering process of structural elements sites which are examples of areas with diverse, natural and of the buildings due to the increased amounts of humic anthropogenic environment (Table 1, Fig. 1). The munici- acids. In addition, Darwin presented the cross sections palities of different size and function ranging from villages of soils covering the Roman villas, basilicas and other (Rimetea, Romania), small tourist resorts (Tossa de Mar, buildings. The morphology of these soils in relation to Spain and Chełmno, Poland) to medium-sized regional cen- their location was also analysed. Afterwards, such soils tres, such as Toruń (Poland) and Segovia (Spain), and finally have not been studied in details until now. Knowledge metropolises (Milan, Porto, Barcelona, Marrakech and about their properties is not well developed. However, Dakar) were accidentally selected. there are some results of the botanical and archaeolog- In Poland (Chełmno and Toruń), the climate is warm ical studies conducted in areas where the development temperate, fully humid with warm summer (Cfb accord- of vegetation and soils on the ruins of buildings led to ing to Köppen). More continental climatic conditions the total concealment of the latter (Lisci et al. 2003; characterize the northwestern part of Romania Ceschin and Caneva 2013). Despite the vast and perva- (Rimetea; Dfb). Milan and Bergamo (Italy) have a rel- sive human perturbation, urban ecosystems can provide atively cool, mid-latitude variant of the humid subtrop- a variety of substrata for colonization by flora and fauna ical climate (Cfa). Some Portuguese (Porto) and Spanish (Forman and Godron 1986;McKinney2002). The (Avila, Salamanca, Segovia) municipalities are located building construction materials can serve as ecological in the zone of moderate maritime climate with cooler J Soils Sediments Table 1 General characteristics of the study sites Site no. Country Coordinates Location Types of the building Plant species components Pl-Ch1 Poland 53° 21′ 0.27″ N Chełmno, Old Market Horizontal Acer 18° 25′ 22.64″ E platanoides Pl-Ch2 53° 21′ 0.65″ N Chełmno, Horizontal Humulus lupulus 18° 25′ 11.66″ E Dominikańska st. R-Ri1 Romania 46° 27′ 15.5″ N Rimetea I Horizontal Poaceae sp., Bryophyta, 23° 34′ 19.2″ E Capsella bursa pastoris R-Ri2 46° 27′ 16.3″ N Rimetea II Vertical Chelidonium majus 23° 34′ 10.6″ E I-Mi1 Italy 45° 28′ 13.23″ N Milan I, Parco Semprione Vertical Poaceae sp. 9° 10′ 37.34″ E I-Mi2 45° 28′ 22.75″ N Milan II, Via Palestro Vertical Parietaria sp. 9° 11′ 48.26″ E I-Be1 45° 42′ 07.68″ N Bergamo I, Parco Suardi Vertical Hedera helix 9° 40′ 38.7″ E I-Be2 45° 42′ 17.49″ N Bergamo II, Mercato Vertical Parietaria sp.