Morphology, Chemical Properties, and Classification of the Alluvial Soils of the Dried‐Up Zone Formed as a Result of the Breach of the Kahovka Dam, Ukraine

ABSTRACT The destruction of the dam of the Kahovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP) in June 2023 has entailed a decline in the Dnipro River water level, the emergence of a dried‐up zone along the streambed, and transformations in the vegetation and land cover of the river valley. The objective of our study was to determine the morphological and chemical (soil organic carbon content, soil electrical conductivity, and рН) properties of the soils in the geomorphological zones, in particular the floodplain, dried‐up zone, and water edge zone, and to identify the soils according to the system World Reference Base for Soil Resources (2022). The soils of the river valley were studied within the city of Zaporizhzhia along three geomorphological profiles across the left bank of the Dnipro River and the eastern shore of Khortytsia Island. The field stage of the studies was conducted in August 2024. According to the results, the diversity of the soils was mostly determined by the moisture conditions and corresponded to the geomorphology of a river valley: the soils of the floodplain were classified as Eutric Pantofluvic Fluvisols; the soils in the dried‐up zone were classified as Eutric Fluvic Gleysols; and the soils of the water edge zone were determined as Eutric Fluvic Subaquatic Gleysols. The morphology of the Fluvisols of the floodplain and the Gleysols of the dried‐up zone was observed to be similar, in particular the lamination of the sandy fluvial deposits such as parent material, the absence of differentiation of the profile into genetic horizons, the presence of gleyic properties in layers saturated with water, and mostly low content of roots in the superficial 0–30 cm layer. The analyzed alluvial soils were characterized by an absence of salinization and a mostly neutral pH reaction. The presence of soil organic carbon was registered in 10 of the 24 studied sites, spatially distributed in an irregular pattern. The results of the study can be further used to monitor the ecological state and evolutionary changes in the soil cover of the Dnipro River valley as a component of urban landscapes of Zaporizhzhia.