scholarly journals Soil moisture retention on slopes under different agricultural land uses in hilly regions of Southern Transdanubia

2020 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 263-280
Author(s):  
Gábor Nagy ◽  
Dénes Lóczy ◽  
Szabolcs Czigány ◽  
Ervin Pirkhoffer ◽  
Szabolcs Ákos Fábián ◽  
...  

Increasingly severe weather extremes are predicted as one of the consequences of climate change. According to climatic models, weather extremities induce higher risks for both flood and drought in the Carpathian Basin. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, flood control relied on cost-intensive engineering structures, but recently ecological solutions have come to the fore. Flood hazard on major rivers could be mitigated if multiple and cumulative water retention opportunities are exploited on the upper sections of tributary catchments. Appropriate land use and landscape pattern changes can shift the infiltration to run-off ratio to the benefit of the former. In the Transdanubian Hills of Southwest Hungary three study areas with different agricultural land use types had been selected and investigated for the impact of landscape micro-features on soil moisture retention capacity with the purpose of conserving water from wet periods for the times of drought. Marked differences in moisture dynamics have been detected between arable land, grasslands and orchards. This fact underlines the need for integrated soil and water conservation. Drought risk was found to be the highest on ploughland. Favourable soil water budgets have been observed in the fields as a function of land use: less intensive types, like grazing land and orchards (particularly tree rows), were identified as places of high water retention capacity. Although serious water stress conditions were also reached in the orchard, it markedly mitigated drought conditions compared to the ploughland.

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-64
Author(s):  
Almobarak Falak ◽  
Lidia A. Mezhova

Central Chernozem is one of the largest agricultural regions in Russia. As a result of the long period of natural resources use the anthropogenic load on agricultural lands is increasing. The result of agricultural nature management is the increase of land degradation processes. Voronezh Region has a high agro-climatic potential, most of the territory is occupied by agricultural land, arable land prevails among them. Soil degradation is the most acute problem. There is a need to assess the impact of agricultural natural resources use on land resources of the region. Modular coefficients for assessment of geochemical impact of agriculture and animal husbandry on agricultural systems are proposed. The developed factor is a tool for identification of negative land use processes and environmental problems. The article deals with the issues of ecologically oriented, scientifically grounded strategy of agricultural nature management. Ecological approach to assessment of soil quality in the future will develop a strategy for balanced land use. The article has a scientific and practical character and is aimed at the development of methods of ecological assessment of soil quality. The proposed methodological approach identifies destructive processes in soils. For ecologically oriented strategy of development of regions it is important to define maximum allowable agricultural loads for preservation of sustainable environment.


2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 50
Author(s):  
Aziz Bahtiar Rifa’i ◽  
Fadjar Hari Mardiansjah

This study examines the impact of agricultural land use change into a petroleum mining area to farmers’ socioeconomic conditions around petroleum mining project area in Gayam District of Kabupaten Bojonegoro. The analyses used a mix method, using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The quantitative approach is used to determine the impact of agricultural land use change on the social and economic aspects with the respondent farmers were supported with a scoring method to determine the condition of socioeconomic vulnerability of farmers, while the qualitative approach carried out through in-depth interviews to some informants who have been affected by the project. The results shows that the presence of the petroleum mining industry has not had a positive impact yet on the farmers’ socioeconomic conditions. By the 700 hectares of agricultural land conversion, the agricultural production capacity of the area tends to decrease, including by the decreasing of the productivity of some agricultural land in a radius of 500 m from the fenceof the mining area as they are affected by the fence’s spotlight. The farmers' income also tends to decrease because of the decreasing of their working hours as the big loss of agricultural land in the area. As a result, many farmers should work outside of the area to search replacement of the arable land. These situations lead to a moderate condition of social and economic vulnerability for the farmers, especially for those who still have sufficient assets to meet the needs of their economic. 


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 (3) ◽  
pp. 60-75
Author(s):  
Elena Belova ◽  
Yuliya Rozenfeld

The subject of the study presented in this article is the economic relations arising due to the progress of the urbanization that leads to changes in agricultural production. For a long time in Russia a reduction of agricultural land, arable land and crops takes place. One reason for this is the global progress of urbanization. Changes in agricultural land use occur across the country however this process is uneven in different regions. Among all regions Moscow and Moscow region significantly stand out. The study showed that in the more urbanized regions of the country reduction of the agricultural land and changes in agricultural land use are greater than in less urbanized ones.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabio Carvalho ◽  
Alona Armstrong ◽  
Mark Ashby ◽  
Belinda Howell ◽  
Hannah Montag ◽  
...  

<p>According to the latest IPCC report, 70 to 85% of electricity generation worldwide will need to come from renewable sources of energy by 2050 if countries are to meet internationally agreed greenhouse gas emissions targets. In the rush to decarbonise energy supplies to meet such targets, solar parks (SPs) have proliferated around the world, with uncertain implications for the biodiversity and ecosystem service (ES) provision of hosting ecosystems. SPs necessitate significant land-use change that could disproportionately affect the local environment compared to other low-carbon sources.</p><p>In Britain, SPs are commonly built on intensive arable land and managed as grasslands. This offers both risks and opportunities for ecosystem health, yet evidence for assessing ecosystem consequences is scarce. Therefore, there is an urgent need to understand how net environmental gains can be integrated into land-use change for solar energy development to address the current biodiversity and climate crises.</p><p>We used vegetation data from over 70 SPs and 50 countryside survey plots (1 km<sup>2</sup>) in England and Wales to assess the effects of land-use change for SPs on plant diversity and ES provision. We assessed ten habitat indicator variables (e.g., species richness, larval food plants, forage grasses, bird food plants) associated to functionally important plant species that have the potential to enhance ecosystem service delivery.</p><p>SPs showed higher diversity of habitat indicator species than arable land and improved grasslands, with vegetation between solar arrays showing higher numbers of species important for ES provision (e.g., N-fixing species important for nutrient cycling) than vegetation under solar panels. Overall, the diversity of habitat indicator species seemed highly dependent on former land-use, showing SPs have the potential to enhance ecosystem services provision if built on degraded agricultural land.</p><p>Developing this understanding will enable optimisation of SP design and management to ensure delivery of ecosystem co-benefits from this growing land-use.</p>


Author(s):  
Tsedekech Gebremeskel Weldmichael ◽  
Erika Michéli ◽  
Barbara Simon

Land use change may modify key soil attributes, influencing the capacity of soil to maintain ecological functions. Understanding the effects of land use types (LUTs) on soil properties is, therefore, crucial for the sustainable utilization of soil resources. This study aims to investigate the impact of LUT on primary soil properties. Composite soil samples from eight sampling points per LUT (forest, grassland, and arable land) were taken from the top 25 cm of the soil in October 2019. The following soil physicochemical parameters were investigated according to standard protocols: soil organic matter (SOM), pH, soil moisture, NH4+–N, NO3––N, AL-K2O, AL-P2O5, CaCO3, E4/E6, cation exchange capacity (CEC), base saturation (BS), and exchangeable bases (Ca2+, Mg2+, K+, and Na+). Furthermore, soil microbial respiration (SMR) was determined based on basal respiration method. The results indicated that most of the investigated soil properties showed significant difference across LUTs, among which NO3––N, total N, and K2O were profoundly affected by LUT (p ≤ 0.001). On the other hand, CEC, soil moisture, and Na+ did not greatly change among the LUTs (p ≥ 0.05). Arable soils showed the lowest SOM content and available nitrogen but the highest content of P2O5 and CaCO3. SMR was considerably higher in grassland compared to arable land and forest, respectively. The study found a positive correlation between soil moisture (r = 0.67; p < 0.01), Mg2+ (r = 0.61; p < 0.01), and K2O (r = 0.58; p < 0.05) with SMR. Overall, the study highlighted that agricultural practices in the study area induced SOM and available nitrogen reduction. Grassland soils were more favorable for microbial activity.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 3228
Author(s):  
Edisa Lozić

The use of topographic airborne LiDAR data has become an essential part of archaeological prospection, particularly as a tool for detecting archaeological features in the landscape. However, its use for landscape reconstruction and understanding archaeological sites in their environmental context is still underutilised. To this end, we took an innovative approach to using LiDAR data as a means of discovering, documenting, and interpreting agricultural land use systems by looking for significant environmental variation within a microregion. We combined information from LiDAR-derived DEM derivatives with archaeological, geological, and soil data. We introduced two methodological innovations. The first is the modified wetness index, which combines the LiDAR-derived precision with the accuracy of the effective field capacity of the soil to obtain a very realistic predictor of soil quality. The second is the modified landform classification, a combination of topographic position index and visual geomorphological analysis, which amalgamates two of the most important predictive variables for the distribution of plant species. Our approach is demonstrated by a case study focusing on early medieval settlements in the context of agricultural land use in the subalpine microregion of Bled (Slovenia). It revealed that early medieval settlers were drawn to light soils with high water retention capacity. Such soils were particularly suitable for the cultivation of barley, which is known to have been one of the most important staple crops of the period, especially in colder climate such as subalpine. Soils with lower water retention capacity were not colonized until the eleventh century, which may signify the transition at that time to a higher level of agricultural organisation and wheat as a staple cereal food.


2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 343-356
Author(s):  
Pavol Kenderessy ◽  
Jozef Kollár ◽  
Andrej Palaj

AbstractThis article is focused on the site conditions of the cultural mountainous West Carpathian landscape (Liptovská Teplička village, Central Slovakia) affected by historical agricultural land use, which also included relief and soil modifications leading to the formation of specific mosaic of agrarian landforms – AL (narrow productive plots separated by balks having character of terraces and mounds). It is based on a pair comparison of sites located side by side; the former is located on the productive plot (former arable land), while the latter is a balk. The pairs were selected in order to capture the representative sample of AL within diverse natural conditions, land cover and management. In order to assess the differences between individual AL, continuous soil water content (SWC) measurements using EC-5 soil moisture sensors were performed. The sensors provided continuous measurements of hourly soil volumetric water content rates (VWC, m3/m3). The data were recorded from April 2018 until December 2018. These data were used to assess individual monitoring localities in terms of SWC temporal stability. Furthermore, at each sampling location, an analysis of soil organic matter content, soil texture and stone content was performed. This research was also supplemented by indirect estimation of some site conditions based on phytoindication method using Ellenberg’s indicator values for moisture, soil reaction, nutrient content, continentality, temperature and light. Our results can be concluded as follows: i) the SWC temporal stability assessment revealed the clear effect of AL, however, it was difficult to identify which factors associated with AL typology were the most significant. The high differences between similar AL types revealed the fact that land use, management and rock content (both at productive plots and balks) affect the SWC temporal stability rather than AL typology and their orientation within the slope, ii) phytoindication method did not show statistically significant differences in site conditions between productive plots and balks, despite the fact that there were some significant differences confirmed in species composition, especially between productive plots and dolomite mounds. These differences are related to a higher number of calciphilous and termophilous species preferring ecotones and forests in mounds and group of mesophilous meadow species in productive plots. In summary, it seems that identified differences in both SWC temporal stability and floristic composition between productive plots and balks reflect the management regime rather than site conditions and formation of mounds represents relatively the most significant impact of traditional agricultural land use on the local environment.


2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Rončák ◽  
Evelin Lisovszki ◽  
Ján Szolgay ◽  
Kamila Hlavčová ◽  
Silvia Kohnová ◽  
...  

AbstractThe effects of land use management practices on surface runoff are evident on a local scale, but evidence of their impact on the scale of a watershed is limited. This study focuses on an analysis of the impact of land use changes on the flood regime in the Myjava River basin, which is located in Western Slovakia. The Myjava River basin has an area of 641.32 km2and is typified by the formation of fast runoff processes, intensive soil erosion, and muddy floods. The main factors responsible for these problems with flooding and soil erosion are the basin’s location, geology, pedology, agricultural land use, and cropping practices. The GIS-based, spatially distributed WetSpa rainfall-runoff model was used to simulate mean daily discharges in the outlet of the basin as well as the individual components of the water balance. The model was calibrated based on the period between 1997 and 2012 with outstanding results (an NS coefficient of 0.702). Various components of runoff (e.g., surface, interflow and groundwater) and several elements of the hydrological balance (evapotranspiration and soil moisture) were simulated under various land use scenarios. Six land use scenarios (‘crop’, ‘grass’, ‘forest’, ‘slope’, ‘elevation’ and ‘optimal’) were developed. The first three scenarios exhibited the ability of the WetSpa model to simulate runoff under changed land use conditions and enabled a better adjustment of the land use parameters of the model. Three other “more realistic” land use scenarios, which were based on the distribution of land use classes (arable land, grass and forest) regarding permissible slopes in the catchment, confirmed the possibility of reducing surface runoff and maximum discharges with applicable changes in land use and land management. These scenarios represent practical, realistic and realizable land use management solutions and they could be economically implemented to mitigate soil erosion processes and enhance the flood protection measures in the Myjava River basin.


2018 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 160-168
Author(s):  
Jozef Varga ◽  
Radoslava Kanianska ◽  
Ján Spišiak

Abstract The aim of the study was to analyse the impact of land use and altitudinal gradient including geological conditions on selected soil physical properties with subsequent effect on earthworms as important soil organisms. The research was conducted at three study sites (Očová – OC, Tajov – TA, Liptovská Teplička – LT) situated in the different climatic and natural conditions of Slovakia each with 3 plots differing in land use (arable land - AL, permanent grasslands – PG, forest land – FL). During 2014 over two periods, we measured soil penetration resistance (PR) with total depth of the measurement (DP) and soil moisture (SM). Earthworms were hand sorted counted and weighed. We found out high variability of measured parameters conditioned by time, space (altitudinal gradient) and land use. PR values of all measurements ranged from 0.19 to 5.00 MPa, DP values from 0.02 to 0.80 m and soil moisture from 2 to 50%. Paired samples test confirmed differences between different land use types mainly between AL and FL plots. There were confirmed significant differences between three ecological gradients in all observed properties with one exception. Correlations among observed variables under different altitudinal gradients and land use types were found. The earthworm density and biomass was significantly higher in permanent grasslands compared to forest and arable land. In arable land, the earthworm density and biomass negatively correlated with the penetration resistance and positively with the depth of the total measurements. In permanent grasslands earthworm biomass positively correlated with soil moisture.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document