ANTI-EROSION EFFICIENCY OF AGROFOREST LANDSCAPE COMPLEX ON SLOPES UNDER CLIMATE CHANGE

Purpose: to study the influence of climate change on the features and patterns of water-erosion processes manifestation and the anti-erosion efficiency of the soil-protecting agroforest-landscape complex on the sloping arable land in the Central Black Earth region. Materials and methods. Monitoring of the meteorological conditions was carried out for the cold season from October to March, starting from 1973–1974 to 2022–2023. The direction of change in meteorological factors was estimated by trend lines. The impact of climate change on water-erosion processes and on the anti-erosion efficiency of the agroforest-landscape complex (ALLC) was assessed using experimental data obtained in a long-term stationary field experiment over 36 years in the period from 1988 to 2023. Results. During the cold year season over a fifty-year period, it was found that after every 10 years there was a temperature rise and a precipitation enhancement. In the last decade, the temperature has increased by 2.5 °C. It was found that during the first 18-year observation period, soil erosion occurred under conditions for 11 years in the control catchment area, and under conditions for 9 years in the catchment area with ALLK. During the subsequent 18-year observation period, soil erosion occurred under conditions for 4 years in the control catchment area, and under conditions for 3 years in the catchment area with ALLK. Over the 36-year observation period, the total soil losses in the catchment area with ALLK were 77.1 t/ha less than in the control area, where they amounted to 120.7 t/ha. Conclusions. With a temperature rise, a decrease in the frequency of water soil erosion was noted. The intensity of soil erosion was higher in years with deep freezing before the formation of snow cover and thick snow cover before the main intensive snowmelt. Over 36 years of observations, soil losses from water erosion were 2.7 times lower in the catchment area with soil-protective ALLC compared to the control.