The Mughan Plain irrigation has existed since ancient times in Azerbaijan, but no known organized and sufficient data are available on such activity. The presented study aimed to assemble the detailed information on the processes that occurred in the irrigated and raw soils of the Mughan Plain and quantify a system of complex measures to improve degraded soils resulting from anthropogenic effects in the recent era. Research showed that in Mughan Plain, the non-salinized soils were predominant in areas with a better collector-drainage system with proper agrotechnical and land reclamation measures. In those areas, the salts varied between 0.108% and 0.250%, while in some parts, the saline soils also appear. Weakly salined soils were also evident in satisfactory areas of collector-drainage systems, and the level of salts ranged between 0.26% and 0.50%, with the chemical composition as chloride-sulfate, sulfate, and sulfate-chlorine. Moderately saline soils mainly have a distribution in municipal lands and in the areas used for cotton crop up to some extent.
Anthropogenic effects, granulometric composition, meadow-gray soils, alluvial-meadow soil, saline soils, groundwater and mineralization, land reclamation measures
Anthropogenic effects caused variations in the research area soil, which led to variations in the humus, total nitrogen, and phosphorus content. In an investigation of the 40-year period, the absorbed bases and salts in meadow-gray and alluvial-meadow soils and an increase and decrease in their content were notable.