Energy and carbon budgeting of traditional land use change with groundnut based cropping system for environmental quality, resilient soil health and farmers income in eastern Indian Himalayas

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is a major indicator of soil health. Globally, soil contains approximately 2344 Gt of organic carbon (OC), which is the largest terrestrial pool of OC. Through plant growth, soil health is connected with the health of humans, animals, and ecosystems. Provides ecosystem services which include climate regulation, water supplies and regulation, nutrient cycling, erosion protection and enhancement of biodiversity. Global increase in land use change from natural vegetation to agricultural land has been documented as a result of intensification of agricultural practices in response to an increasing human population. Consequently, these changes have resulted in depletion of SOC stock, thereby negatively affecting agricultural productivity and provision of ecosystem services. This necessitates the need to consider technological options that promote retention of SOC stocks. Options to enhance SOC include; no-tillage/conservation agriculture, irrigation, increasing below-ground inputs, organic amendments, and integrated, and diverse cropping/farming systems. In addition, land use conversion from cropland to its natural vegetation improves soil C stocks, highlighting the importance of increasing agricultural production per unit land instead of expanding agricultural land to natural areas.

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Identifying potential threats to soil biodiversity

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.9271 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

pp. e9271 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Mark Tibbett ◽

Tandra D. Fraser ◽

Sarah Duddigan

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Use Change ◽

Research Effort ◽

Soil Health ◽

Sensu Stricto ◽

Scientific Activity ◽

Expert Assessment ◽

Negative Effects ◽

Soil Biodiversity ◽

Intensive Exploitation

A decline in soil biodiversity is generally considered to be the reduction of forms of life living in soils, both in terms of quantity and variety. Where soil biodiversity decline occurs, it can significantly affect the soils’ ability to function, respond to perturbations and recover from a disturbance. Several soil threats have been identified as having negative effects on soil biodiversity, including human intensive exploitation, land-use change and soil organic matter decline. In this review we consider what we mean by soil biodiversity, and why it is important to monitor. After a thorough review of the literature identified on a Web of Science search concerning threats to soil biodiversity (topic search: threat* “soil biodiversity”), we compiled a table of biodiversity threats considered in each paper including climate change, land use change, intensive human exploitation, decline in soil health or plastic; followed by detailed listings of threats studied. This we compared to a previously published expert assessment of threats to soil biodiversity. In addition, we identified emerging threats, particularly microplastics, in the 10 years following these knowledge based rankings. We found that many soil biodiversity studies do not focus on biodiversity sensu stricto, rather these studies examined either changes in abundance and/or diversity of individual groups of soil biota, instead of soil biodiversity as a whole, encompassing all levels of the soil food web. This highlights the complexity of soil biodiversity which is often impractical to assess in all but the largest studies. Published global scientific activity was only partially related to the threats identified by the expert panel assessment. The number of threats and the priority given to the threats (by number of publications) were quite different, indicating a disparity between research actions versus perceived threats. The lack of research effort in key areas of high priority in the threats to soil biodiversity are a concerning finding and requires some consideration and debate in the research community.

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Impacts of long-term disturbance on soil health with relation to vegetation distribution in a tropical ecosystem

Plants and Environment ◽

10.22271/2582-3744.2020.dec.149 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2 (4) ◽

pp. 149-156

Author(s):

C. N. Basweti ◽

◽

S. Otor ◽

S. Manohar ◽

◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Use Change ◽

Land Cover ◽

Soil Health ◽

Integrated Approach ◽

Soil Productivity ◽

Land Cover Changes ◽

Vegetation Distribution ◽

Grassland Soil

Land-use and land-cover changes are the main cause of soil degradation and associated human and environmental problems. The study was conducted in Mai Mahiu ecosystem, Kenya whose aim was to assess long-term (1985 to 2015) impacts of land-use and land-cover changes on soil health with disturbance-induced vegetation distribution. Landsat archive was utilized to detect land-use change for 30 years at an interval of 15 years and analysed based on supervised image classification. Four land-use practices (undisturbed forest, disturbed forest, cropland and grassland) were selected and soil sampled to 15 cm depth for soil analyses. In this period, cropland increased by 135% at the expense of natural forest while built-up areas increased by three times. Soil bulk density increased significantly (p<0.001) from 0.93±0.02 g cm-3 in forest soil to 1.27±0.02 g cm-3 in disturbed grassland. Soil pH had significant change (p=0.002) that ranged between 6.19±0.14 and 7.18±0.12. Soil organic carbon declined significantly (p=0.008) with land-use change with losses of up to 63% recorded in disturbed grassland. Total nitrogen levels declined from 0.34% in the forest to 0.15% in disturbed grassland soil. The pronounced changes in land-use and land-cover in Mai Mahiu have negatively affected the soil health with a potential drop in soil productivity and ecosystem provisioning. An integrated approach, enforcement of relevant laws and policy implementation are recommended to restoring and maintaining soil quality of this ecosystem.

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Land use change: understanding and managing soil dynamics

Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria ◽

10.1071/rs10014 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 122 (2) ◽

pp. 29

Author(s):

Richard MacEwan ◽

Keith Reynard ◽

Nathan Robinson ◽

Mark Imhof ◽

Elizabeth Morse-Mcnabb ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Use Change ◽

Spatial Information ◽

Soil Health ◽

Farming Systems ◽

Soil Condition ◽

Soil Dynamics ◽

Catchment Management ◽

The North ◽

Farm Scale

Lessons of the past show that care for the soil is fundamental to the rise and sustainability of agrarian civilisations. The responsibility for this care devolves to individual farmers, land managers and investors in agricultural production, all of whom are, by default, soil custodians. Soil condition is affected by land use practices; understanding the dynamics of soil and land use interaction is therefore critical in achieving sustainable soil management and the maintenance of soil health. Understanding and managing this dynamic requires good data and sound knowledge of farming systems and their interaction with soil properties and processes. The North Central Catchment Management Authority (NCCMA) region has soil and land use data at a range of scales that can assist in understanding the region’s soil assets with respect to current and future farming systems. Programs that fully engage farmers in planning for soil health, and provide appropriate tools and information, will be a cornerstone for managing soil dynamics under pressure from climate and land use change. This paper explains the contexts in which soil spatial information and land use data are collected, provides examples for the NCCMA region, and briefly describes the challenge of providing soil information at the farm scale.

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Land use change from an annual maize cropping systems to a perennial Silphium perfoliatum crop has unused potential to reduce GHG emission in biomass production

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-4510 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Björn Kemmann ◽

Thorsten Ruf ◽

Andreas Kirch ◽

Christoph Emmerling ◽

Roland Fuß ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Nitrous Oxide ◽

Land Use Change ◽

Biomass Production ◽

Cropping System ◽

Flowering Plant ◽

Nitrous Oxide Emissions ◽

Mountain Range ◽

Public Attention ◽

Biomass Yields

<p>In the last two decades, acreage for biomass production has strongly increased in Germany due to the Renewable Energy Act. Recently, discussion about soil, climate, and biodiversity protection is receiving more and more public attention throughout broad parts of the society. The project BESTLAND focuses on the effect of land use change from the common annual maize cropping system to a perennial cropping system, as a measure against increasing environmental constraints in biomass production. A suitable perennial biomass crop as an alternative for maize is S. perfoliatum (cup plant). On one hand, the yellow flowering plant produces high biomass yields and on the other hand it provides a variety of ecosystems services. Field experiments were carried out in the Saar-Nahe mountain range in the state of Saarland on a fine textured planosol. The experimental sites are characterized by temporal waterlogging and slopes and therefore these sites are prone for soil compaction and soil erosion. Under these conditions perennial crops are assumed to have soil preserving benefits. Maize was compared to cup plant by establishing four paired sites, where each pair consisted of a maize and a cup plant field in close vicinity (< 500 meters) to each other. All sites are grower fields and were managed by the farmers according best management practices. Nitrous oxide and methane fluxes were measured weekly using the static chamber technique all year round. Besides greenhouse gas measurement, soil samples for determination of soil mineral nitrogen were taken at each gas sampling date. Furthermore, soil temperature and water content were continuously monitored using sensors. Biomass yields at each site were determined at harvest. In the first year average nitrous oxide emissions from cup plant fields were lower than from maize fields by more than 70 % on area and dry matter yield basis. These results indicate that perennial bioenergy crops not only offer a wider range of ecosystem services but can also decrease GHG emissions from bioenergy production.</p>

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Land Use Change, Urban Agglomeration, and Urban Sprawl: A Sustainable Development Perspective of Makassar City, Indonesia

Land ◽

10.3390/land10060556 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (6) ◽

pp. 556

Author(s):

Batara Surya ◽

Agus Salim ◽

Hernita Hernita ◽

Seri Suriani ◽

Firman Menne ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Use Change ◽

Environmental Quality ◽

Urban Sprawl ◽

Transportation Systems ◽

Urban Agglomeration ◽

Activity Systems ◽

City Area ◽

Suburban Areas ◽

Quality Degradation

Urbanization towards the expansion of the city area causes urban sprawl and changes in space use. Furthermore, urban agglomeration towards urban spatial integration causes a decrease in environmental quality. This study aims to analyze (1) land-use change and urban sprawl work as determinants of environmental quality degradation in suburban areas. (2) The effect of urban sprawl, urban agglomeration, land-use change, urban activity systems, and transportation systems on environmental quality degradation in suburban areas. A combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches is used sequentially in this study. Data obtained through observation, surveys, and documentation. The results showed that the expansion of the Makassar City area to the suburbs had an impact on spatial dynamics, spatial segregation, and environmental degradation. Furthermore, urban sprawl, land-use change, urban agglomeration, activity systems, and transportation systems have a positive correlation to environmental quality degradation with a determination coefficient of 85.9%. This study recommends the handling of urban sprawl, land-use change, and urban agglomeration to be considered in the formulation of development policies towards the sustainability of natural resources and the environment of Makassar City, Indonesia.

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