Increasing agricultural productivity and, in particular, the productivity of livestock is one of the primary tasks in the present stage of development of society. This involves rational feeding and the use of biologically active substances, including humic preparations that activate the digestive and metabolic processes in the animal, promoting the transformation of feed nutrients in assimilable form, raising daily milk production and weight gain, and can play an important role in solving this urgent problem. The applications of humic substances in animal husbandry are diverse, but their use as feed additives is not developed sufficiently, and in the EU countries it is not sanctioned. Researchers in different countries have shown that humic substances in animals operate on the cellular and subcellular level, as they do in plants. Low molecular weight fractions HS enter the cell and are involved in metabolic processes, contributing to the optimization of inorganic ion passage through the intestinal wall, thereby promoting the absorption of minerals necessary for normal functioning of the organism. That is how the stimulating influence of humic substances on separate systems and on the organism as a whole is manifested. Humic substances formed from various natural materials are currently being tested in various branches of animal husbandry (cattle, pig breeding, poultry farming, fish farming, fur farming), and all the information received presents convincing evidence of the high efficiency of the humates. Such materials as peat and brown coal, vegetable waste, and vermicompost can act as a source of humic substances. However, in each case, more research is needed, specifying the dosage and schedule of their use.

Transformation of particle-size composition, structure, and density of soils upon urbopedogenesis is considered for Rostov agglomeration. Various soils are compared by horizons. It is found that the...

Rostov oblast, which is located in southwestern European Russia, is characterized by a temperate continental climate with unstable moisture, dry and hot summers, relatively little snowy winters, and constant winds. The climatic and geomorphological features of the territory, as well as the high agricultural development of land resources, result in the development of a number of degradation processes. The purpose of the research is to make a comparative spatiotemporal assessment of degradation processes that contribute to the development of the desertification process in Rostov oblast. The basis of the research was a retrospective analysis of the literature and archival data, as well as the use of calculated natural and environmental indicators differentiated with allowance for the prevailing soil types in the soil cover and the degree of natural moisture of the agrolandscape in accordance with the ecological stability and hydrothermal regime of the territory. It is established that the following processes are characteristic of Rostov oblast: climate aridization, agro-depletion, and the development of erosion. This allows us to evaluate it as a territory with a risk of potential desertification.

In the monitoring of soils contaminated with heavy metals, the choice of the target indicators (background or threshold values) is a challenging task. The determination of the background...