The Influence of Agricultural Land Use on the Dynamics of Biological Cycling and Soil Properties in the Course of Postagrogenic Succession (Kostroma Oblast)

Land is the most important endowment in nature, providing livelihood in both the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors. However, most areas of land previously developed from tropical rainforest have been degraded as a result of land misuse with nutrient mining and soil degradation presently considered as problems in arable farms. Hence, the extent to which land for crop production influences soil properties need to be studied to greater details due to variations in soils by location. The objective of the study is to investigate the effect of agricultural land use systems on the soil physical and chemical properties. Three representative fields with three replicates each which have been in active use for last 5 years were selected from each agricultural land use types: Cultivated (07.31° N 05.12° E 360.0 M), Agroforestry (07.31° N 05.21° E 373.5 M) and Grazing land (07.29° N 05.35° E 355.0 M). Five soil subsamples were collected from the depths of 0-20 and 20 - 40 cm each in a radial sampling. The data was subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using Statistical Analytical System (SAS) and the means were separated using Duncan’s Multiple Range Test (DMRT) at P<0.05 significant level. The mean values of soil chemical properties are highest in the agroforestry land followed by cultivated and then in the grazing land. Grazing land shows the highest bulk density of (1.87 g/cm3), cultivated (1.30 g/cm3) and then agroforestry (1.24 g/cm3) with same trends recorded in particle density across the land use. The soils significantly responded to changes in land use systems through salient soil features which constitute soil properties governing soil fertility and productivity. Such human-induced change is not limited to surface soils but also the subsurface soils and has remarkable implication for ecosystem quality and productivity of the traditional low-external-input agriculture in the study area.

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Site classification of afforested arable land based on soil properties for forest production

Canadian Journal of Forest Research ◽

10.1139/x06-031 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 36 (6) ◽

pp. 1451-1460 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

A Wall ◽

C J Westman

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Soil Properties ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Arable Land ◽

Agricultural Land Use ◽

Forest Site ◽

Site Productivity ◽

High Productivity ◽

Properties Of Soil ◽

Site Types

We used discriminant analysis to identify the key soil properties that discriminate among 30 forest sites representing a floristic site-type fertility gradient. Thereafter we classified 24 sites on afforested arable land into forest site types using these discriminant functions. The most important soil properties of the E horizon separating different forest site types were pH and the densities of Ca, P, and silt. Using properties of soil from the 010 cm depth to represent the current level of site productivity, we classified all soils from afforested arable land into forest site types of high productivity. Among these soils, the most fertile were those with high clay and silt densities. Again, using properties of soil from the 3040 cm depth to emulate the site productivity that prevailed before soil-formation processes and agricultural land use altered the upper soil horizon, we classified most of the soils from afforested arable land into forest site types of medium productivity. This implies that agricultural land use had increased the densities of basic elements at the 010 cm soil depth and, consequently, site productivity. The high productivity of former arable lands was attributed to their previous agricultural use and to the inherent properties of fine-grained soils.

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