Assessment of Soil Quality in a Copper Mining Region in Bulgaria

The paper deals with a mining region of Bulgaria in the Sub-Balkan mountain valleys where there is enrichment of the rock material in copper, gold and other valuable metals and minerals. The study area is localized in the South-west of Chelopech mining - close to the watershed of Topolnitsa River. A monitoring network has been set up. The dominated soil types are Cambisols, Luvisols, Fluvisols, and Phaeozems with shallow surface humus horizon. In the mining region, the anthropogenic activities have different negative impacts over soil cover such as contamination, erosion, acidification, waste disposal, inert and other materials spread over soils surface. The assessment of physico-chemical and agrochemical soil parameters is important for its ecological modelling applications. The study found significant fluctuation of these properties in the area. Acidification affects 45% of the studied points, this accompanied by insufficient nitrogen and phosphorus nutrition.