Name of programme: GA ČR
Project number: 24-14389L
Investigator for FLD: prof. Ing. Vilém Podrázský, CSc.
Contact person: prof. Ing. Vilém Podrázský, CSc., podrazsky@fld.czu.cz
Implementation period: 04/2024 – 03/2027
Magnetic properties of soils have been used widely in assessing topsoil pollution, soil degradation and erosion, history of land use, recultivation, etc. This research is mostly facilitated by highly sensitive and fast measurements of magnetic susceptibility. The efficacy of the method is usually based on magnetically enhanced shallow layer due to atmospherically deposited iron-oxide particles, which occurs usually on the boundary between humus and illuvial horizons. While this is common in depths to about 10 cm in soils with well-developed soil profile, highly-permeable soils with low content of humus, such as Podzols, may show high dynamics of migration of particles. This may result in significant mixing of particles of anthropogenic and natural origin. The project aims at using detailed magnetic measurements of such soils, assisted by soil and geochemical analyses and geostatistical data processing, for unmixing iron oxides of anthropogenic and natural origin and to develop a geophysical tool for determining the soil diagnostic horizons, necessary for the soil taxonomy.