Effects of Land Use Change on Soil Quality Indicators in Forest Landscapes of the Western Amazon

Soil Science ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 182 (4) ◽  
pp. 128-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Santiago Bonilla-Bedoya ◽  
Magdalena López-Ulloa ◽  
Tom Vanwalleghem ◽  
Miguel Ángel Herrera-Machuca
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 162
Author(s):  
Jamal Suliman Alawamy ◽  
Siva K. Balasundram ◽  
Ahmad Husni Mohd. Hanif ◽  
Christopher Teh Boon Sung

Conversion of native lands into agricultural use, coupled with poor land management practices, generally leads to changes in soil properties. Understanding the undesirable effects of land-use and land-cover (LULC) changes on soil properties is essential when planning for sustainable land management. This study was conducted in Al Jabal Al Akhdar region, Libya, to assess the effects of land-use and land-cover changes on soil quality inferred by analyzing the relative changes in 17 chemical, physical, and biological soil properties in the upper layer (0–20 cm) of disturbed and undisturbed soil systems. Soil samples were collected from 180 sampling sites with 60 from each of the three types of LULC prevalent in the study area: natural Mediterranean forests (NMF), rainfed agriculture (RA), and irrigated crops (IC). The soil properties of the two agricultural land uses were compared with soil properties under an adjacent natural forest, which served as a control to assess changes in soil quality resulting from the cultivation of deforested land. The results indicate significant reductions in most soil quality indicators under rainfed agriculture as compared to native forest land. Under irrigated agriculture, there were significant changes (p ≤ 0.05) in most of the soil quality indicators, generally, indicating a significant reduction in soil quality, except for improvement of nitrogen and phosphorus levels due to frequent fertilizer application. Our data support the notion that changes in land use and land cover, in the absence of sustainable management measures, induce deterioration of soil properties and ultimately may lead to land degradation and productivity decline.


2017 ◽  
Vol 74 ◽  
pp. 182-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel C. Vinhal-Freitas ◽  
Gilberto F. Corrêa ◽  
Beno Wendling ◽  
Lenka Bobuľská ◽  
Adão S. Ferreira

Author(s):  
Kelsey Watts

Soils play a critical role to society as a medium that facilitates crop production and also contributes to the energy and carbon balance of the Earth System. Land-use change and improper land-use is one of the dominant factors affecting soil erosion and nutrient loss in soils. We examined the effects of land-use change on an Elmbrook clay/clay-loam soil on a farm in Ameliasburg on the northern part of Prince Edward County. Three cover types were examined: a sod field (established for over 10 years), a wheat field (part of a wheat/corn/soybean rotation for 30 years) and an undisturbed deciduous forest. Under each land-use type, cores to a depth of 40 cm were collected along three random 30 m transects (at 8, 16 and 24 m), then divided them into 10 cm increments, combining all similar depth increments along one transect. Soil quality was assessed by analyzing various soil physical and chemical properties. Bulk density of the soil was much higher (1.55 vs. 0.95 g/cm3) in both agricultural ecosystems compared to the forest, but only in the 0-10 cm layer. Soil moisture at 60% water holding capacity was much greater for the forest than the sod and wheat soils. Soil pH was slightly lower in the forest compared to the sod and wheat fields. The sod and wheat fields showed losses of ~52% and ~53% organic matter, respectively, in contrast to the forested area. The greatest differences in organic matter and total carbon were found in the top 10 cm, likely due to the greater accumulation of litter at the ground surface in the forest compared to the agricultural sites. It appears that long-term (10 year) agricultural production has led to a decline in some, but not all, soil quality measures, particularly soil organic matter, bulk density and water holding capacity. These findings are consistent with much of the literature concerning the effects of land-use change on soil quality, and highlight the need to develop improved management systems to minimize losses in soil quality that can lead to declines in the productivity potential of soils over time.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 148
Author(s):  
S. Muwanga ◽  
R. Onwonga ◽  
S. O. Keya ◽  
E. Komutunga

Uganda Government embarked on promoting sedentary agriculture in Karamoja agro-pastoral semi-arid livelihood zone, which experience rapid environmental and high soil quality (SQ) decline. However, studies on sedentary agriculture’s impact on soil quality using farmer’s knowledge is limited. Consequently, a survey was carried out in Karamoja (Iriiri, Matany Sub-counties of Napak of districts and Rengen sub-county of Kotido) to determine the soil quality indicator parameters based on the farmers knowledge in order to build a local soil knowledge data base to better inform sustainable land use strategies. Using a semi-structured questionnaire, forty indigenous farmers per sub-county, were interviewed between August and September, 2015. The study took into account the social demographic characteristics of the people, farming enterprises, methods of crops production, crops yields trends, causes of the perceived yields trends and soil quality indicators. Prospects of developing Karamoja indigenous knowledge data base lies in visible feature that predict soil quality. Farmers used 36 parameters to determine SQ. The parameters were clustered into five categories; soil, crop, biological, environmental and management each category contributing to 42, 19,14,8 and 17% of the total indicators, respectively. The relationship between age group and the perceived indicators of soil fertility was statistically significant (p-value = 0.045) with the majority stating that they use either soil colour, soil depth or soil texture to express the fertility of soil. The farmer’s soil quality indicators assessed in this study, is important in establishing indigenous-scientific hybrid knowledge data base to enhance soil fertility maintenance and better inform policy makers and other stakeholders on development of sustainable land use strategies.


2015 ◽  
Vol 90 (6) ◽  
pp. 1009-1023 ◽  
Author(s):  
Márcio Fernandes Alves Leite ◽  
Ronildson Lima Luz ◽  
Karol Henry Mavisoy Muchavisoy ◽  
Marcelo Luís Corrêa Zelarayán ◽  
Ernesto Gomez Cardoso ◽  
...  

Soil Research ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (5) ◽  
pp. 509 ◽  
Author(s):  
Azadeh Gholoubi ◽  
Hojat Emami ◽  
Amin Alizadeh

Land-use change has been shown to affect soil quality and may lead to soil degradation. The effects of land-use change from natural forest to tea farming on soil properties and quality were studied within Guilan Province of northern Iran. Thirty-six soil samples (0–30 cm) were randomly collected from six sites with three replications at each site. The soil quality of forest and tea farms was determined using the cumulative rating (CR) index and the Cornell Comprehensive Assessment of Soil Health (CASH) scoring function. Effects of land-use change on soil quality or health were significant (P < 0.01) using both methods. Both methods for all regions (forest and tea fields) showed that forest land-use was more sustainable based on lower CR (lower limitation to crop production) and higher CASH scores (higher soil productivity and quality) than tea farm soils. Both methods were also negatively correlated with each other. Despite pH being a limiting factor for soil quality, it was not influenced by land-use change in most locations because the studied soils were acidic. However, organic carbon was the most important soil quality indicator, which was significantly correlated with soil physical, chemical and biological (respiration rate) properties. Therefore, land-use management practices that are continuously cultivated should include increases in organic carbon.


Author(s):  
Jaroslava Janků ◽  
Markéta Kosánová ◽  
Josef Kozák ◽  
Tomáš Herza ◽  
Jan Jehlička ◽  
...  

The project dealt with an evaluation of the soil quality in the Central Bohemian Region in the Czech Republic. The relevant attributes and characteristics were found regarding the soils in this selected area. Based on the data from soil probes, climate characteristics, soil production function and data on the land use, the characteristics, known as soil quality indicators, were selected. Then the soils were sorted into groups which indicated their suitability for the best land use and planning. The characteristics of the soils that contributed the most to the ecosystem services provided by this part of the environment were chosen as the soil quality indicators. In order to find out how the soils are able to provide ecosystem services, two types of approaches were used – the average score and the total amount of points gained. Maps indicating the soil quality were created using the ArcGIS program. At the same time, research on the differences in the quality in two different layers of the soil was carried out. In most cases, there was a decrease in the soil quality with an increasing depth. The results of this project can be used as a basis for a new soil valuation in the Czech Republic.


2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 72-79
Author(s):  
Rajani Srivastava ◽  
Monalisha Mohapatra ◽  
Ashish Latare

AbstractConversion of forest land into different land use types is the primary cause of degradation of land resources, which in turn alters nutrient and carbon cycles, land productivity and diversity of species. There is scarcity of information about land-use changes (LUC) and their effect on relationship of soil quality and species diversity at landscape level in the Vindhyan dry tropical region. We evaluated the impact of land-use changes on soil physicochemical quality and the influence of these qualities on species diversity and organic matter accumulation. We also established the relationship between soil quality indicators and species diversity parameters. To examine impact of LUC, we did a detailed field survey and analysed selected soil quality indicators by standard methods. We examined species diversity parameters and established the relationship between soil quality and species diversity. We found that there is a marked decline in soil porosity, water-holding capacity and soil moisture due to LUC. Conversion from forest land (FL) to savanna land (SL) resulted in soil organic carbon decreasing by ∼40–50%. The decrease was more pronounced in cultivated land (CL) and degraded land (DL) (65–70% and 83–85%, respectively). In the case of total N, maximum decrease in total N of 83–87% was noted in DL as compared with FL. The poor soil quality indicators in degraded and agricultural land can be explained by the interaction between the soil organic carbon and nitrogen loss with diversity loss. This study recommends that for management/restoration of land resources, planning strategies should consider the current landscape structure, with land-use planning.


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