EN
The circumstances of physical degradation of soils in their arable and subarable layers, as well as the ways of counteracting that phenomenon were discussed on the grounds of own research and literature data. The results presented prove a complex character of the impact of critical compaction in different kinds of mineral soils on the vegetation of plants. The values were found to be correlated negatively with the silt and clay fraction contents and positively with the amount of water and organic carbon in soil. Hence, the restrictive character of bulk density or compaction appears to be connected with given type of soil and changing according to its moisture content. These observations concern the arable and subarable layers. Additional complicating factor in the subarable layer consists in its general importance to development and vegetation of plants on given soil.