Agricultural terraces in the Sowie Mountains

Creation or agricultural terraces is one of the main method of anti-erosional protection in the mountain regions. In the Sudetes Mountains the terraces are in many places relict landforms, which developed during previous centuries, when the extent of settlements and agricultural land use was much more widespread. The article presents the agricultural terraces in the Sowie Mts in the context of other, very few studies, which were conductcd in the Sudetes referring to agricultural terraces. Terracing leads to changes of slope longitudinal profiles, dividing them into separate units with erosion dominating in their upper parts and accumulation in lower parts, behind the upper edge of every terrace. The steeper and the longer is the slope, the higher is the terrace. Also the thickness of agricultural sandy-silty layer, which originates from slope wash and ploughing, and accumulates over the terrace edge, increases according to the increase or slope inclination and slope length. The material which is stored within the terraces is enriched with fine-grained particles (sandy-silty), due to the selective character or surface wash. In contrast, the upper parts of slope are left more coarsegrained. The material accumulated within the terraces allows for estimation of the minimum anthropogenic denudation from slopes under present or former ploughing. The values of denudation for the Sudetes range from 0,09 to 2,7 mm year⁻¹ and depend strongly on lithology, slope inclination and length