EUROPEAN SOIL BUREAU ⎯ RESEARCH REPORT NO. 9 Soil Resources of Croatia F. Bašić Faculty of Agriculture University of Zagreb Department of Agronomy ZAGREB Introduction Bearing in mind the Multifunctional Character of After the establishment of the Higher Royal Agriculture and Land (MFCAL) approach, Croatia Agricultural and Forestry School at Križevci in does not treat the development of agriculture and 1877, M. Kišpatić’s ‘Zemljoznanstvo’ (Earth- forestry merely as sources of food, timber and/or knowledge) was published, as the first textbook of profits and separate from other functions and roles. soil science in the Croatian language, and All the functions and roles of agriculture and generally one of the first in the world. In 1891, the agricultural land are inextricably linked and first laboratory for soil analysis was founded in equally important. In national parks and other Zagreb. Thereafter followed the establishment of protected and/or sensitive areas, the most the Department of Soil Science, Petrology and important function is the environmental. In others Mineralogy of the Forest Academy in Zagreb in it is the social function, providing profitable 1910, later integrated into the Faculty of employment and maintenance of a planned and Agriculture and Forestry of the Kingdom of desirable demographic balance, or shaping a Yugoslavia in 1919 in Zagreb. cultural landscape for recreation and tourism. The most important role in the development of soil Following this approach, all the roles of soil are sciences in Croatia has been our famous soil equally important because, after all, it is possible scientist, plant physiologist and plant ecologist to buy food and other goods on the global market, Mihovil Gračanin (1901-1981). The first but agricultural land, landscapes and plants in it are organisation of Croatian soil scientists was the not subject to the same market forces. Yugoslavian section of International Society of Soil Science, whose first president in the period Due to its varied climate, geological structure, 1931-1940 was M. Gračanin. So, we take 1931 as relief and vegetation, most of the common the year of establishment of Croatian Society of European soil types can be found in Croatia. Soil Science - CSSS. After World War II, CSSS continued its activities within the Yugoslavian Soil genesis depends primarily on the parent rock Society of Soil Science, as a member of ISSS (now and prevailing climate. A layer of soil 30cm thick IUSS). may form in 1,000 to 30,000 years on loose parent materials, such as sand, loess and marl. On Versions of several soil maps at smaller scale have limestone, a very common rock in Croatia, for a been prepared for the area of the former layer of soil 50cm thick to form (which is required Yugoslavia, mostly for educational purposes. The for a good and fertile soil for agriculture) may take work of Croatian authors Škorić and Bogunović is more than 1 million years. Due to such long noteworthy in the production of the Soil Map of formation time, Varallyay (1997) describes the soil Yugoslavia at 1:2,000,000 scale, based on a map as a ‘conditionally renewable’ resource, because prepared for the Soil Map of Europe (CEC, 1985). although it may be renewed, this will not be This latter project was initiated by FAO at a scale possible within the human time scale. of 1:1,000,000. Using the same maps and soil survey material, Bogunović (1997) prepared the Soil Map of Croatia at the scale 1:1,000,000, the Soil Survey first one produced after the independence of the Soil investigations have a long history in Croatia country. and have never lagged behind the rest of Europe. In the period 1964-1985, the General Soil Map of Croatia at scale 1:50,000 was prepared. This map was an epoch-making document, containing as it Soil Resources of Croatia. F. Bašić 89 EUROPEAN SOIL BUREAU ⎯ RESEARCH REPORT NO. 9 does data on physical, chemical and biological Detailed soil mapping has also been carried out in properties and the spatial distribution of soils of the past. Large scale maps, at 1:5,000 or 1:10,000 Croatia, collected with an observation density of scales, have been prepared for the needs of soil approximately one soil profile per 1,000ha. This reclamation - drainage and irrigation of the important document has analytical data for about agricultural land, as well as for afforestation. 6,000 soil profiles and is the basic document on the Silvicultural practices cover approximately 10- Croatian soils. It was made using modern methods, 15% of agricultural land and a somewhat lower with the application of aerial stereo-photographs, proportion of total forest soils. Detailed soil with the soils being depicted on sheets of a investigations, or interpretation of already topographic map. The maps were printed, but some completed research, were conducted for other, very sheets, with areas extending into neighbouring different purposes, such as environmental effects countries and those on the Adriatic islands, were in landscape planning, optimal silvicultural never printed due to lack of funds. It is now practices, establishment of fruit plantations and necessary to prepare a revised General Soil Map of vineyards, building of reservoirs for hydroelectric Croatia - RGSMC, using the modern techniques of generation, research in areas with degraded forest multispectral satellite images. Revision of GSMC vegetation, exploration of localities exposed to is also justified because new soil survey material strong erosion, assessment of soil pollution by and interpretations have been collected since the heavy metals and choice of most suitable highway first sheets were prepared (1964) and completed routes. (1985). All these investigations have had specific targets, It is also very important because environmental which have driven the research programme, protection needs soil maps and since its planning is methods of soil sampling and choice of analytical county based, the GSMC documentation should be methods. Another common characteristic is that used to prepare a separate soil map for each county their results have remained in manuscript form of Croatia. although they contain valuable and unique data and ideas. As part of regional soil studies, the preparation and printing of GSMC was accompanied by Thus, an imposing amount of diverse data and publication of regional monographs. Three information on the distribution and properties of monographs with maps have been published to the soils of Croatia has been collected by modern date: Soils of the Upper Sava Valley, Soils of methods since World War II. Slavonia and Baranja, and Pedosphere of Istria. The comprehensive GSMC documentation, that Soil Databases contains printed material and unique manuscripts, In some ways, Croatia is a natural ‘soil museum’. is kept at the Department of Soil Science, Faculty The highest unit in the Croatian classification is of Agriculture, which is the centre of cartographic the soil order, characterised by a specific type of activities in Croatia. The data, which are waiting drainage and genesis; automorphic, hydromorphic, for up-to-date computer processing, represent a halomorphic and subaqual soil order. The central solid and reliable basis for developing an and the most important unit of soil classification is information system on the soils of Croatia. soil type, characterised by the properties of the soil profile (number and sequence of soil horizons), The GSMC sheets, as well as other ‘purely’ genesis, evolution and main properties. The topographical documents, were designated as General Soil Map of Croatia at 1:50,000 scale is an ‘officially secret’ in the period prior to 1990 and, inventory of Croatian soils. as a consequence, were not accessible for public scrutiny, particularly for international exchanges of The data in Table 1 refer to areas covered by information. Thus, the knowledge and information different soil orders and the prevalent soil types. about Croatian soils circulated within a small- Useful information about soils in Croatia can be closed circle of professionals and remained found at the on-line journal of the Faculty of inaccessible to the general and wide professional Agriculture in Zagreb - ACS (Agriculturae public. One of the consequences is that the Conspectus Scientificus) with free access to the awareness of the importance of the soil, and the full text of published paper hazards to which it is exposed, are only slowly http://www.agr.hr/smotra/issues.htm. Unlike its penetrating the minds of professionals and the neighbours, Croatia has a high percentage of general public circles. Hence, the surprise with hydromorphic soils, in part because Croatia started which information on the endangered state of the soils is received by the public. 90 Soil Resources of Croatia. F. Bašić EUROPEAN SOIL BUREAU ⎯ RESEARCH REPORT NO. 9 Table 1: Soil orders and main soil types of the Republic of Croatia (Bogunović, 1997) No Soil type Area, ha % I. Automorphic Soils 3,153,432 56.631 1. Lithosol 32,703 0.587 2. Regosol 70,698 1.270 3. Colluvial soil 91,938 1.651 4. Arenosol 667 0.012 5. Chernozem 51,808 0.930 6. Leptosol on hard limestone and dolomite (melanosol) 255,201 4.583 7. Humic silicate soil (ranker) 86,944 1.561 8. Leptosol, calcaric 420,184 7.546 9. Vertisol 5,002 0.090 10. Cambisol, eutric 172,495 3.098 11. Cambisol, distric 316,184 5.678 12. Cambisol, rhodic (Terra rossa) 245,289 4.405 13. Cambisol on limestone and dolomite 474,959 8.530 14. Luvisol 703,215 12.629 15. Podzol 1,382 0.025 16. Brown podzolic soil 7,393 0.133 17. Anthropogenic soils 217,370 3.904 II. Hydromorphic Soils 1,617,640 29.050 18. Stagnosol 577,025 10.363 19. Fluvisol 136,343 2.449 20. Humofluvisol 89,901 1.614 21.