Coastal acid sulphate soils in Poland: a review

This paper presents the state of knowledge on coastal acid sulphate soils in Poland. The properties of these soils are closely related to the influence of brackish water from the Baltic Sea, high accumulation of organic matter and human activity. The obtained results demonstrate that the sulphide accumulation in soils refers to a relatively small areas of the Polish coastal zone with the unique and very valuable habitats. They require an adequate regulation of the water relations to avoid the risk of strong soil acidification and environmental pollution by heavy metals. Currently, there are no relevant criteria for classification of acid sulphate soil materials in the Polish Soil Classification (2011). Therefore, based on the presented data, the authors proposed to identify these features at the lower classification level (for different soil types). The criteria for the Thionic and Sulfidic qualifiers used in the WRB classification (IUSS Working Group WRB 2015) could be accepted for this purpose.