Effect of land use systems and topographical attributes on the condition of surface soil physicochemical properties in a highland catchment of the Lake Victoria Basin, Uganda

CATENA ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 203 ◽  
pp. 105343
Author(s):  
Yazidhi Bamutaze ◽  
Michael E. Meadows ◽  
Majaliwa Mwanjalolo ◽  
Patrick Musinguzi
2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence Tatanah Nanganoa ◽  
Justin Nambangia Okolle ◽  
Valentine Missi ◽  
Jacques Roberto Tueche ◽  
Lewis Dopgima Levai ◽  
...  

The impact of different land-use systems on some soil physicochemical properties and macrofauna abundance in the humid tropics of Cameroon was studied. The land-use types included secondary forest (SF), oil palm plantation (PP), banana plantation (BP), sugarcane plantation (SP), and rubber plantation (RP). Soil particle size distribution, bulk density (BD), pH, organic matter (OM), and number of macrofauna were evaluated. The results showed that OM and number of macrofauna were higher in the SF than in the other land-use types. Pearson’s correlation analysis carried out to determine the relationship between OM and BD showed that OM and BD was strongly negatively related with correlation coefficient of −0.9653. It also showed a strong significant negative correlation between BD and ants population (r = −0.8828) and between soil pH and number of earthworms (r = −0.9072). Based on the results, the SF produced more organic matter and higher number of macrofauna. However, the OM of the other land uses was not low; hence, it could be beneficial to return plant residues to the field for maintaining soil quality.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1398
Author(s):  
Tavjot Kaur ◽  
Simerpreet Kaur Sehgal ◽  
Satnam Singh ◽  
Sandeep Sharma ◽  
Salwinder Singh Dhaliwal ◽  
...  

The present study was conducted to investigate the seasonal effects of five land use systems (LUSs), i.e., wheat–rice (Triticum aestivum—Oryza sativa) system, sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum), orange (Citrus sinensis) orchard, safeda (Eucalyptus globules) forest, and grassland, on soil quality and nutrient status in the lower Satluj basin of the Shiwalik foothills Himalaya, India. Samples were analyzed for assessment of physico-chemical properties at four soil depths, viz., 0–15, 15–30, 30–45, and 45–60 cm. A total of 120 soil samples were collected in both the seasons. Soil texture was found to be sandy loam and slightly alkaline in nature. The relative trend of soil organic carbon (SOC), macro- and micro-nutrient content for the five LUSs was forest > orchard > grassland > wheat–rice > sugarcane, in the pre- and post-monsoon seasons. SOC was highly correlated with macronutrients and micronutrients, whereas SOC was negatively correlated with soil pH (r = −0.818). The surface soil layer (0–15 cm) had a significantly higher content of SOC, and macro- and micro-nutrients compared to the sub-surface soil layers, due to the presence of more organic content in the soil surface layer. Tukey’s multiple comparison test was applied to assess significant difference (p < 0.05) among the five LUSs at four soil depths in both the seasons. Principle component analysis (PCA) identified that SOC and electrical conductivity (EC) were the most contributing soil indicators among the different land use systems, and that the post-monsoon season had better soil quality compared to the pre-monsoon season. These indicators helped in the assessment of soil health and fertility, and to monitor degraded agroecosystems for future soil conservation.


2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nahusenay Abate ◽  
Kibebew Kibret

The study was conducted to investigate the effects of land use, depth and topography on soil physicochemical properties at the Wadla Delanta Massif, northcentral Ethiopia. Four land uses (natural forest, shrub, grazing and cultivated land), three soil depths (0-20, 20-40, 40-60 cm) and three topographic positions (upper, middle and lower) in three replications were considered for this study. A total of 108 composite samples were collected for laboratory analysis. The results show that particle size distribution was affected by the main effects of land use and soil depth; bulk and particle densities, total porosity, organic matter and total nitrogen contents, C:N ratio and available phosphorus were significantly affected by the interaction of land use by soil depth only, whereas, soil pH, electrical conductivity, exchangeable bases, cation exchange capacity, percent base saturation and extractable micronutrients were affected by the interaction effects of the three factors. Highest clay and bulk density were recorded at the bottom layer of the cultivated land soils, while the utmost porosity, organic matter and nitrogen contents, and available phosphorus were recorded at the surface layers of the natural forest land soils. Highest pH was at the bottom layer of the cultivated land at the three topographic positions. Highest exchangeable bases and cation exchange capacity were observed in the bottom layers of soils under the four land use types at the lower topographic position, whilst extractable micronutrients were recorded at the surface layers of the forest land soils at the upper topographic position. In general, most of the measured soil properties were measured better in forest than in other land use soils and the lower topographic positions than the upper and middle ones. Interaction of land use with topography showed negative effects especially on cultivated and grazing land soils in all topographic positions. Therefore, integrated soil fertility management and soil conservation measures are required in all topographic positions to maintain soil physicochemical properties.


2015 ◽  
Vol 04 (05) ◽  
pp. 461-473 ◽  
Author(s):  
Japhet Joel Kashaigili ◽  
Emmanuel Zziwa ◽  
Siwa Ernest ◽  
Emma Laswai ◽  
Bernard Musana Segatagara ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 335-345
Author(s):  
Dancan Otieno Onyango ◽  
Christopher O. Ikporukpo ◽  
John O. Taiwo ◽  
Stephen B. Opiyo

The socio-economic and ecological value of Lake Victoria is threatened by significant regional development and urbanization. This study analyzed spatial-temporal land use/land cover changes in the Kenyan Lake Victoria basin from 1978–2018 using Landsat 3, 4-5 and 8 imagery, with a view to identifying the extent and potential impacts of urbanization on the basin. Supervised image classification was undertaken following the Maximum Likelihood algorithm to generate land use/land cover maps at ten-year intervals. Results indicate that the basin is characterized by six main land use/land cover classes namely, agricultural land, water bodies, grasslands and vegetation, bare land, forests and built-up areas. Further, the results indicate that the basin has experienced net increases in built-up areas (+97.56%), forests (+17.30%) and agricultural land (+3.54%) over the last 40 years. During the same period, it experienced net losses in grassland and vegetation (-37.36%), bare land (-9.28%) and water bodies (-2.19%). Generally, the changing landscapes in the basin are characterized by conversion of natural environments to built-up environments and driven by human activities, urban populations and public policy decisions. The study therefore recommends the establishment of a land use system that creates a balance between the ecological realm and sustainable development.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 2829 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robinson Mugo ◽  
Rose Waswa ◽  
James W. Nyaga ◽  
Antony Ndubi ◽  
Emily C. Adams ◽  
...  

The Lake Victoria Basin (LVB) is a significant resource for five states within East Africa, which faces major land use land cover changes that threaten ecosystem integrity and ecosystem services derived from the basin’s resources. To assess land use land cover changes between 1985 and 2014, and subsequently determine the trends and drivers of these changes, we used a series of Landsat images and field data obtained from the LVB. Landsat image pre-processing and band combinations were done in ENVI 5.1. A supervised classification was applied on 118 Landsat scenes using the maximum likelihood classifier in ENVI 5.1. The overall accuracy of classified images was computed for the 2014 images using 124 reference data points collected through stratified random sampling. Computations of area under various land cover classes were calculated between the 1985 and 2014 images. We also correlated the area from natural vegetation classes to farmlands and settlements (urban areas) to explore relationships between land use land cover conversions among these classes. Based on our land cover classifications, we obtained overall accuracy of 71% and a moderate Kappa statistic of 0.56. Our results indicate that the LVB has undergone drastic changes in land use land cover, mainly driven by human activities that led to the conversion of forests, woodlands, grasslands, and wetlands to either farmlands or settlements. We conclude that information from this work is useful not only for basin-scale assessments and monitoring of land cover changes but also for targeting, prioritizing, and monitoring of small scale, community led efforts to restore degraded and fragmented areas in the basin. Such efforts could mitigate the loss of ecosystem services previously derived from large contiguous land covers which are no longer tenable to restore. We recommend adoption of a basin scale, operational, Earth observation-based, land use change monitoring framework. Such a framework can facilitate rapid and frequent assessments of gains and losses in specific land cover classes and thus focus strategic interventions in areas experiencing major losses, through mitigation and compensatory approaches.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Weldemariam Seifu ◽  
Eyasu Elias ◽  
Girmay Gebresamuel

Understanding topography effects and assessing the soil properties in different land use is an essential first step for sustainable soil management. Hence, land use type and altitudinal gradient on selected soil parameters were studied in Ayiba watershed, northern Ethiopia. Thirty composite soil samples were collected from 0 to 30 cm of soil depth under four land use types across three altitudinal gradients and were analyzed for selected soil parameters following the standard procedures. A significant main effect of land use and altitudinal gradient on the content of the soil particles was noted. Results also indicated that the bulk density (BD), total porosity (TP), and Pav of the soil are significantly different ( p  < 0.05) in the watershed because of land use type and altitudinal gradient. Barren land and higher altitude landscapes have the highest BD, and the lowest TP, and grassland and lower altitude landscapes have the lowest BD and high TP. Intensive cultivation accompanied by natural land conversion and erosion due to the rugged landscape nature caused high BD and low TP. Analysis of variance results also shows the significant interaction effect of land use type and altitudinal gradient on EC, SOM, SOC ( p  < 0.001), and pH-water (1:2.5), and TN ( p  < 0.01). The Pearson correlation of SOM with TP, TN, MC, and clay content showed a strong positive relationship. But, SOC, TN, and clay content were negatively correlated with BD. Soils of the study watershed are found in low to optimum rating levels in their selected physicochemical properties. Overall, the results show that land use and topography gradient significantly affected soil physicochemical properties in the study watershed. Therefore, soil management options should focus on scenarios that could improve the soil conditions to enhance crop production on a sustainable basis.


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