scholarly journals EVALUATION OF SOIL NUTRIENT STATUS IN APPLE ORCHARDS LOCATED IN DIFFERENT ALTITUDES IN KALIKOT DISTRICT, NEPAL

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-103
Author(s):  
Dhruba Baral ◽  
Anup Paudel ◽  
Himal Acharya ◽  
Madhav Prasad Neupane

This study was conducted to assess the fertility status of different altitude of apple orchard and their effect upon soil nutrients and to study the relationship between different altitude and their availability. Seven different orchards located in 2800, 2700 2600, 2500, 2400, 2300 and 2200 at Apple Zone, Raskot, Kalikot were selected as treatments. They were replicated three times in Randomized Complete Block Design. Composite soil samples were collected in each study site from 0-3 ft soil depth in ‘W’ pattern from each plot. Analyses of soil samples were done in regional soil testing laboratory, Surkhet for chemical properties. There was a significant effect (p<0.05) of altitude on soil macronutrients except available potassium level. Maximum amounts of soil organic matter, acidic and soil rich in nitrogen and phosphorus were found in 2800 masl whereas more basic soil , poor soil organic matter and soil poor in nitrogen and phosphorus were found in 2200 masl. Result showed that in altitude of 2200 masl has poor soil nutrients compared to apple orchards in higher altitude. Kalikot is the top producer of apple in Nepal. This assessment will helps apple growers for adopting better nutrient management plan in their orchards according to the altitude in the district. Further, it is recommended to conduct soil nutrient assessments for all other apple growing regions in the country.

2021 ◽  
pp. 969-976
Author(s):  
Lirong He ◽  
Yuhu Luo

The soil nutrient characteristics under three vegetation types of arbor ( I ), shrub ( II ) and herb ( III ) were studied by mathematical statistics method combined with field investigation and indoor detection analysis. The change characteristics of soil nutrients under different land use patterns were discussed. The results showed that the average contents of soil organic matter, total nitrogen, available phosphorus and available potassium were 21.30 and 0.65 g/kg, 3.67 and 67.61 mg/kg, respectively. Compared with grassland, woodland has better effect on fertilizer conservation in the Loess Plateau. In the process of soil nutrient improvement, the nutrient indexes such as organic matter, total nitrogen, available phosphorus and available potassium increased synchronously, and the soil alkaline environment that was not conducive to plant growth was also gradually improved. In the correlation between soil nutrients, available phosphorus and available potassium have good relative independence. In the future, organic fertilizer should be applied in this area, and nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers should be supplemented to improve soil organic matter, nitrogen and phosphorus content, and to ensure soil nutrient balance by optimizing fertilization methods. In addition, in the case of uneven distribution of soil nutrients in the soil profile, it is recommended to take appropriate soil ploughing and reasonable human management measures to improve soil nutrient status, achieve high-quality sustainable development of soil, and promote the positive succession of vegetation communities. Bangladesh J. Bot. 50(3): 969-976, 2021 (September) Special


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 3957
Author(s):  
Yingying Xing ◽  
Ning Wang ◽  
Xiaoli Niu ◽  
Wenting Jiang ◽  
Xiukang Wang

Soil nutrients are essential nutrients provided by soil for plant growth. Most researchers focus on the coupling effect of nutrients with potato yield and quality. There are few studies on the evaluation of soil nutrients in potato fields. The purpose of this study is to investigate the soil nutrients of potato farmland and the soil vertical nutrient distributions, and then to provide a theoretical and experimental basis for the fertilizer management practices for potatoes in Loess Plateau. Eight physical and chemical soil indexes were selected in the study area, and 810 farmland soil samples from the potato agriculture product areas were analyzed in Northern Shaanxi. The paper established the minimum data set (MDS) for the quality diagnosis of the cultivated layer for farmland by principal component analysis (PCA), respectively, and furthermore, analyzed the soil nutrient characteristics of the cultivated layer adopted soil quality index (SQI). The results showed that the MDS on soil quality diagnosis of the cultivated layer for farmland soil included such indicators as the soil organic matter content, soil available potassium content, and soil available phosphorus content. The comprehensive index value of the soil quality was between 0.064 and 0.302. The SPSS average clustering process used to classify SQI was divided into three grades: class I (36.2%) was defined as suitable soil fertility (SQI < 0.122), class II (55.6%) was defined as moderate soil fertility (0.122 < SQI < 0.18), and class III (8.2%) was defined as poor soil fertility (SQI > 0.186). The comprehensive quality of the potato farmland soils was generally low. The proportion of soil nutrients in the SQI composition ranged from large to small as the soil available potassium content = soil available phosphorus content > soil organic matter content, which became the limiting factor of the soil organic matter content in this area. This study revolves around the 0 to 60 cm soil layer; the soil fertility decreased gradually with the soil depth, and had significant differences between the respective soil layers. In order to improve the soil nutrient accumulation and potato yield in potato farmland in northern Shaanxi, it is suggested to increase the fertilization depth (20 to 40 cm) and further study the ratio of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilizer.


2008 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silmara R. Bianchi ◽  
Mario Miyazawa ◽  
Edson L. de Oliveira ◽  
Marcos Antonio Pavan

The quantity of soil organic matter (SOM) was estimated through the determination of soil organic carbon (SOC) times a factor, which assumes that 58% of the SOM was formed by carbon. A number of soil samples with wide range of SOC content collected in the state of Paraná, Brazil were evaluated in the laboratory. SOC was measured by Walkley-Black method and the total SOM by loss on ignition. The SOC was positively correlated with SOM. The SOM/SOC ratio varied from 1.91 to 5.08 for the soils. It shows that Brazilian SOM has greater oxidation degree. Although, the SOM and SOC decreased with soil depth the SOM/SOC ratio increased. It showed that SOM in the subsoil contained more oxygen but less carbon than the SOM in the upper soil surface. The CEC/SOC also increased with depth indicating that the functional groups of the SOM increased per unity of carbon.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1293
Author(s):  
Lei Hua ◽  
Jianen Gao ◽  
Meifang Zhou ◽  
Shilun Bai

Relative elevation, as one of the decisive factors to the redistribution of soil water, nutrients, sunshine, and temperature in a region influences apple yield and quality by adjusting soil water and nutrients. To explore the impact of relative elevation on apple quality, this research investigated the conditions of soil moisture and nutrients at different elevations of terrace apple orchards in the hilly-gully region of the Loess Plateau. The results showed that soil water content decreases when the elevation increased, whereas soil nutrients fluctuated significantly at different elevations of terrace orchards and the contents were lower than the standard level of the Loess Plateau, especially soil organic matter, but total potassium was higher. The apple firmness increased when the elevation increased and had a good linear relationship with elevation. Apple vitamin C content in weed-covered orchards was higher than in the ploughing and weeding management orchards. The impact of soil nutrients, including soil water, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium on apple quality were concentrated in soluble solid and total acid. Irrational irrigation or partial use of nutrients, such as more use of nitrogen and less use of phosphorus and potassium, may deteriorate the apple quality. Therefore, we suggested that the amount of irrigation be increased appropriately with the raising of elevation. Moreover, part of the weed should be kept to cover the orchard, as well as mowing regularly and covering the surface. This would not only improve water use efficiency and increase soil organic matter content, it would also maintain apple quality and ensure sustainable development of the apple orchards.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 4000
Author(s):  
Peng Guo ◽  
Ting Li ◽  
Han Gao ◽  
Xiuwan Chen ◽  
Yifeng Cui ◽  
...  

Soil nutrients, including soil available potassium (SAK), soil available phosphorous (SAP), and soil organic matter (SOM), play an important role in farmland soil productivity, food security, and agricultural management. Spectroscopic analysis has proven to be a rapid, nondestructive, and effective technique for predicting soil properties in general and potassium, phosphorous, and organic matter in particular. However, the successful estimation of soil nutrient content by visible and near-infrared (Vis-NIR) reflectance spectroscopy depends on proper calibration methods (including preprocessing transformation methods and multivariate methods for regression analysis) and the selection of appropriate variable selection techniques. In this study, raw spectrum and 13 preprocessing transformations combined with 2 variable selection methods (competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (CARS) and the successive projections algorithm (SPA)) and 2 regression algorithms (support vector machine (SVM) and partial least squares regression (PLSR)), for a total of 56 calibration methods, were investigated for modeling and predicting the above three soil nutrients using hyperspectral Vis-NIR data (400–2450 nm). The results show that first-order derivatives based on logarithmic and inverse transformations (FD-LGRs) can provide better predictions of soil available potassium and phosphorous, and the best form of soil organic matter transformation is SG+MSC. CARS was superior to the SPA in selecting effective variables, and the PLSR model outperformed the SVM models. The best estimation accuracies (R2, RMSE) for soil available potassium, phosphorous, and organic matter were 0.7532, 32.3090 mg/kg; 0.7440, 6.6910 mg/kg; and 0.9009, 3.2103 g/kg, respectively, and their corresponding calibration methods were (FD-LGR)/SPA/PLSR, (FD-LGR)/SPA/PLSR, and SG+MSC/CARS/SVM, respectively. Overall, for the prediction of the soil nutrient content, organic matter was superior to available phosphorous, followed by available potassium. It was concluded that the application of hyperspectral images (Vis-NIR data) was an efficient method for mapping and monitoring soil nutrients at the regional scale, thus contributing to the development of precision agriculture.


Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 779
Author(s):  
Václav Voltr ◽  
Ladislav Menšík ◽  
Lukáš Hlisnikovský ◽  
Martin Hruška ◽  
Eduard Pokorný ◽  
...  

The content of organic matter in the soil, its labile (hot water extractable carbon–HWEC) and stable (soil organic carbon–SOC) form is a fundamental factor affecting soil productivity and health. The current research in soil organic matter (SOM) is focused on individual fragmented approaches and comprehensive evaluation of HWEC and SOC changes. The present state of the soil together with soil’s management practices are usually monitoring today but there has not been any common model for both that has been published. Our approach should help to assess the changes in HWEC and SOC content depending on the physico-chemical properties and soil´s management practices (e.g., digestate application, livestock and mineral fertilisers, post-harvest residues, etc.). The one- and multidimensional linear regressions were used. Data were obtained from the various soil´s climatic conditions (68 localities) of the Czech Republic. The Czech farms in operating conditions were observed during the period 2008–2018. The obtained results of ll monitored experimental sites showed increasing in the SOC content, while the HWEC content has decreased. Furthermore, a decline in pH and soil´s saturation was documented by regression modelling. Mainly digestate application was responsible for this negative consequence across all soils in studied climatic regions. The multivariate linear regression models (MLR) also showed that HWEC content is significantly affected by natural soil fertility (soil type), phosphorus content (−30%), digestate application (+29%), saturation of the soil sorption complex (SEBCT, 21%) and the dose of total nitrogen (N) applied into the soil (−20%). Here we report that the labile forms (HWEC) are affected by the application of digestate (15%), the soil saturation (37%), the application of mineral potassium (−7%), soil pH (−14%) and the overall condition of the soil (−27%). The stable components (SOM) are affected by the content of HWEC (17%), soil texture 0.01–0.001mm (10%), and input of organic matter and nutrients from animal production (10%). Results also showed that the mineral fertilization has a negative effect (−14%), together with the soil depth (−11%), and the soil texture 0.25–2 mm (−21%) on SOM. Using modern statistical procedures (MRLs) it was confirmed that SOM plays an important role in maintaining resp. improving soil physical, biochemical and biological properties, which is particularly important to ensure the productivity of agroecosystems (soil quality and health) and to future food security.


2012 ◽  
Vol 42 (11) ◽  
pp. 1953-1964 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene Fernandez ◽  
Juan Gabriel Álvarez-González ◽  
Beatríz Carrasco ◽  
Ana Daría Ruíz-González ◽  
Ana Cabaneiro

Forest ecosystems can act as C sinks, thus absorbing a high percentage of atmospheric CO2. Appropriate silvicultural regimes can therefore be applied as useful tools in climate change mitigation strategies. The present study analyzed the temporal changes in the effects of thinning on soil organic matter (SOM) dynamics and on soil CO2 emissions in radiata pine ( Pinus radiata D. Don) forests. Soil C effluxes were monitored over a period of 2 years in thinned and unthinned plots. In addition, soil samples from the plots were analyzed by solid-state 13C-NMR to determine the post-thinning SOM composition and fresh soil samples were incubated under laboratory conditions to determine their biodegradability. The results indicate that the potential soil C mineralization largely depends on the proportion of alkyl-C and N-alkyl-C functional groups in the SOM and on the microbial accessibility of the recalcitrant organic pool. Soil CO2 effluxes varied widely between seasons and increased exponentially with soil heating. Thinning led to decreased soil respiration and attenuation of the seasonal fluctuations. These effects were observed for up to 20 months after thinning, although they disappeared thereafter. Thus, moderate thinning caused enduring changes to the SOM composition and appeared to have temporary effects on the C storage capacity of forest soils, which is a critical aspect under the current climatic change scenario.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iva Hrelja ◽  
Ivana Šestak ◽  
Igor Bogunović

&lt;p&gt;Spectral data obtained from optical spaceborne sensors are being recognized as a valuable source of data that show promising results in assessing soil properties on medium and macro scale. Combining this technique with laboratory Visible-Near Infrared (VIS-NIR) spectroscopy methods can be an effective approach to perform robust research on plot scale to determine wildfire impact on soil organic matter (SOM) immediately after the fire. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the ability of Sentinel-2 superspectral data in estimating post-fire SOM content and comparison with the results acquired with laboratory VIS-NIR spectroscopy.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The study is performed in Mediterranean Croatia (44&amp;#176; 05&amp;#8217; N; 15&amp;#176; 22&amp;#8217; E; 72 m a.s.l.), on approximately 15 ha of fire affected mixed &lt;em&gt;Quercus ssp.&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Juniperus ssp.&lt;/em&gt; forest on Cambisols. A total of 80 soil samples (0-5 cm depth) were collected and geolocated on August 22&lt;sup&gt;nd&lt;/sup&gt; 2019, two days after a medium to high severity wildfire. The samples were taken to the laboratory where soil organic carbon (SOC) content was determined via dry combustion method with a CHNS analyzer. SOM was subsequently calculated by using a conversion factor of 1.724. Laboratory soil spectral measurements were carried out using a portable spectroradiometer (350-1050 nm) on all collected soil samples. Two Sentinel-2 images were downloaded from ESAs Scientific Open Access Hub according to the closest dates of field sampling, namely August 31&lt;sup&gt;st&lt;/sup&gt; and September 5&lt;sup&gt;th &lt;/sup&gt;2019, each containing eight VIS-NIR and two SWIR (Short-Wave Infrared) bands which were extracted from bare soil pixels using SNAP software. Partial least squares regression (PLSR) model based on the pre-processed spectral data was used for SOM estimation on both datasets. Spectral reflectance data were used as predictors and SOM content was used as a response variable. The accuracy of the models was determined via Root Mean Squared Error of Prediction (RMSE&lt;sub&gt;p&lt;/sub&gt;) and Ratio of Performance to Deviation (RPD) after full cross-validation of the calibration datasets.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The average post-fire SOM content was 9.63%, ranging from 5.46% minimum to 23.89% maximum. Models obtained from both datasets showed low RMSE&lt;sub&gt;p &lt;/sub&gt;(Spectroscopy dataset RMSE&lt;sub&gt;p&lt;/sub&gt; = 1.91; Sentinel-2 dataset RMSE&lt;sub&gt;p&lt;/sub&gt; = 0.99). RPD values indicated very good predictions for both datasets (Spectrospcopy dataset RPD = 2.72; Sentinel-2 dataset RPD = 2.22). Laboratory spectroscopy method with higher spectral resolution provided more accurate results. Nonetheless, spaceborne method also showed promising results in the analysis and monitoring of SOM in post-burn period.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Keywords:&lt;/strong&gt; remote sensing, soil spectroscopy, wildfires, soil organic matter&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Acknowledgment: &lt;/strong&gt;This work was supported by the Croatian Science Foundation through the project &quot;Soil erosion and degradation in Croatia&quot; (UIP-2017-05-7834) (SEDCRO). Aleksandra Per&amp;#269;in is acknowledged for her cooperation during the laboratory work.&lt;/p&gt;


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Binner ◽  
Timothy Sullivan ◽  
Maria E. Mc Namara

&lt;p&gt;Soil contamination is widespread across Europe. In particular, contamination of urban soils by metals is poorly characterised. This is a major environmental concern, especially given that urban recreational amenities may be located on former industrial sites and/or may possess ex situ soils derived from industrial areas. We surveyed soils from nine urban recreational sites (15 samples per site) in Cork city in order to assess the degree of metal contamination. The results show that Pb concentrations exceed national background levels in all soil samples from all sites by a mean of 600 % and at least 140 %. Mn, Fe and Zn are enriched above background levels in all soil samples from three (Mn and Fe) to five (Zn) of the sites and, at the remaining sites, show 7 &amp;#8211; 14 localised hotspots. Similar hotspots characterise Cu, Rb and Sr, which each exceed background levels at eight or more sampling locations at four sites. Co, Ni, As and Sn concentrations exceed background levels in at least three hotspots at each of three to six sites. Overall, metal concentrations are highest in the sites closest to the city centre, reflecting diverse sources that potentially include traffic and current and historical domestic coal burning and industry. At each urban site, the element grouping Zn and Pb recurs in 50 to 80 % of locations and enrichment in the element grouping Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn and Pb recurs in approx. 50 % of locations; Ni and As recur in approx. 10 % of the locations. At three sites, elevated concentrations of Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn and Pb are associated with high LOI (Loss-on-ignition) values &amp;#8211; a proxy for the amount of soil organic matter present &amp;#8211; and near-neutral pH values. Conversely, low LOI and acidic pH values are associated with lower concentrations of these elements. This indicates that soil metal concentrations are influenced by the amount of organic matter present and by pH. &amp;#160;Future analyses and experiments will further investigate links between soil organic matter and metal concentrations.&lt;/p&gt;


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document