scholarly journals Mixed-Species Plantation Effects on Soil Biological and Chemical Quality and Tree Growth of a Former Agricultural Land

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 842
Author(s):  
Tiziana Danise ◽  
Walter S. Andriuzzi ◽  
Giovanna Battipaglia ◽  
Giacomo Certini ◽  
Georg Guggenberger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Quality ◽  
Tree Growth ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Juglans Regia ◽  
Woody Species ◽  
Tree Planting ◽  
Mixed Species ◽  
Elaeagnus Umbellata ◽  
Feeding Groups ◽  
The Impact

Tree planting on abandoned agricultural land could both restore the soil quality and increase the productivity of economically valuable woody species. Here, we assess the impact of mixed-species tree plantations on soil quality at a site in Central Italy where tree intercropping systems were established 20 years ago on a former agricultural land. These intercropping systems include two species of economic interest, Populus alba and Juglans regia, and one of three different nurse trees, i.e., Alnus cordata, Elaeagnus umbellata, both of which are N-fixing species, and Corylus avellana. We measured tree growth and compared how soil organic matter, soil extracellular enzymes, and nematodes of different feeding groups varied among the intercropping systems and relative to a conventional agricultural field. Our results indicate that tree plantation led to an increase in soil carbon and nitrogen, and enhanced enzyme activities, compared with the agricultural land. The proportion of nematode feeding groups was heterogeneous, but predators were absent from the agricultural soil. Multivariate analysis of soil properties, enzymatic activity, nematodes, and tree growth point to the importance of the presence N-fixing species, as the presence of A. cordata was linked to higher soil quality, and E. umbellata to growth of the associated valuable woody species. Our findings indicate that intercropping tree species provide a tool for both restoring fertility and improving soil quality.

scholarly journals Determination of environmental problems of agricultural nature management based on modular geochemical indicators

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-64
Author(s):  
Almobarak Falak ◽  
Lidia A. Mezhova
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Soil Quality ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Animal Husbandry ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Nature Management ◽  
The Impact

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.

scholarly journals Using the LANCA® Model to Account for Soil Quality Within LCA: First Application and Approach Comparison in Two Contrasted Tropical Case Studies

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexis Thoumazeau ◽  
Céline Bustany ◽  
Jérémy Rodrigues ◽  
Cécile Bessou
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Soil Quality ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Environmental Concern ◽  
Anthropogenic Pressure ◽  
Soil System ◽  
The Impact

Assessing the effect of land management on soil quality is nowadays a key environmental concern, as the soil system is linked to major ecosystem services. There is a strong methodological shortage to integrate the impact of anthropogenic pressure on the soil system within large scale environmental frameworks, such as the Life Cycle Assessment. The LANCA® method was proposed to meet this need, integrating five impact categories of soil functions and directly applicable within the Life Cycle Assessment framework. Although the most recent 2016-LANCA® version shows readiness to be integrated in this large scale environmental framework to meet the demand, it has not yet been applied and validated on case studies. This study proposes a first application of the LANCA® model on two contrasted agricultural-based case studies to share experience in implementing the model through both background and foreground approaches, to analyze the first model outputs and to provide tracks for further model improvements. The results proved that both LANCA® approaches were poorly sensitive to the agricultural land managements tested. The foreground approach was difficult to implement due to the lack of transparency of the targeted characterization factors calculation procedure. Further global sensitivity and redundancy analysis should also be proposed in order to validate the consistency of the global model.

Physico-Chemical Properties of Soil Collected from Chandrabhaga River in Kalmeshwar, Nagpur, Maharashtra

2020 ◽  
Vol 07 (02) ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
Amita M Watkar ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Soil Quality ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Organic Matter Content ◽  
Chemical Properties ◽  
Matter Content ◽  
Soil Attributes ◽  
Essential Components ◽  
Agricultural Land Management ◽  
Physical And Chemical

Soil, itself means Soul of Infinite Life. Soil is the naturally occurring unconsolidated or loose covering on the earth’s surface. Physical properties depend upon the amount, size, shape, arrangement, and mineral composition of soil particles. It also depends on the organic matter content and pore spaces. Chemical properties depend on the Inorganic and organic matter present in the soil. Soils are the essential components of the environment and foundation resources for nearly all types of land use, besides being the most important component of sustainable agriculture. Therefore, assessment of soil quality and its direction of change with time is an ideal and primary indicator of sustainable agricultural land management. Soil quality indicators refer to measurable soil attributes that influence the capacity of a soil to function, within the limits imposed by the ecosystem, to preserve biological productivity and environmental quality and promote plant, animal and human health. The present study is to assess these soil attributes such as physical and chemical properties season-wise.

The impact of land reform on the development of united territorial communities

2020 ◽  
pp. 29-33
Author(s):  
Tamara Smovzhenko ◽  
Oryslava Korkuna ◽  
Ivan Korkuna ◽  
Ulyana Khromyak
Keyword(s):  
Land Reform ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Public Lands ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
The Public ◽  
Legal Documents ◽  
Practical Research ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Land Code

Nowadays, according to decentralization and current legislation (Land Code of Ukraine, Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Law of Ukraine «On Self-Governance»), the public lands have been transferred to the CTCs since 1 February 2018. In 2018/2019, 788 CTCs received communal ownership of 1.68 ha of public lands. According to the Draft Law «On Amendments to Several Legal Documents of Ukraine on Agricultural Lands Turnover», the consolidated territorial communities become the legal entities and can acquire property rights to agricultural land plots. Therefore, transferring the lands to be used by the newly created CTCs is currently an urgent issue that requires extended scientific and practical research. The paper aims to research the role of land reform in Ukraine and its impact on increase of CTCs’ budget revenues. The stages of land reform and the development of the land reform in Ukraine as well as its implementation strategy are outlined. The disparities of the integrated satellite map and the data of the Land Cadaster of Ukraine in terms of unregistered lands are defined. The amount of a CTC budget’s increased revenues due to the reform is estimated. Statistical data on small, medium, and large farmers and their interest in the land reform are analyzed. The terms of selling the land to foreign investors and conditions of participation in land auctions are examined. The mechanisms of land purchase, selling, and lease in line with the land reform are suggested. Generalizing the presented aspects of the land reform in Ukraine and their impact on economic activity of the newly created CTCs, it can be argued that the process is quite positive and necessary for both communities and businesses in order to get additional budget revenues for CTCs. The land reform improves the living standards of Ukrainian people through the disclosure of the country’s agricultural capacity.

The Impact of Biochar on the Soil

2018 ◽  
Vol 69 (8) ◽  
pp. 2197-2208
Author(s):  
Carmen Otilia Rusanescu ◽  
Erol Murad ◽  
Cosmin Jinescu ◽  
Marin Rusanescu
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Agricultural Soils ◽  
Biomass Gasification ◽  
High Humidity ◽  
Agricultural Ecosystems ◽  
Productive Potential ◽  
Co2 Balance ◽  
Environmentally Sound ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Organic Resources

In the present paper are presented the experimental results of biomass gasification, the biochair was produced from vineyards by controlled pyrolysis at 750 �C, in order to increase the fertility of soils, it was found the increase of the fertility produced by the development of the vegetables in the soil to which was added biochar. Soil was added to soil 4 g/dm3 biochar, 8 g/dm3 biochar, the soil had no high humidity, was taken at a time when it had not rained for at least one week, the soil pH was 8, in the soil with 8 g/dm3 biochar the plants increased compared to the soil with 4 g/dm3 and the soil without biochar. The biochar resulting from pyrolysis and gasification processes is a valuable amendment to agricultural soils and an efficient and economical way to seize carbon. Using biochar it is possible to increase the diversity of agricultural land in an environmentally sound way in areas with depleted soils, limited organic resources and insufficient water for development. Helps to soil carbon sequestration with negative CO2 balance, increases the productive potential of agricultural ecosystems.

Impact of LULC Changes on LST in Rajshahi District of Bangladesh: A Remote Sensing Approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdulla Al Kafy ◽  
Abdullah Al-Faisal ◽  
Mohammad Mahmudul Hasan ◽  
Md. Soumik Sikdar ◽  
Mohammad Hasib Hasan Khan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Urban Expansion ◽  
Water Bodies ◽  
Landsat 8 ◽  
Lulc Changes ◽  
The Impact

Urbanization has been contributing more in global climate warming, with more than 50% of the population living in cities. Rapid population growth and change in land use / land cover (LULC) are closely linked. The transformation of LULC due to rapid urban expansion significantly affects the functions of biodiversity and ecosystems, as well as local and regional climates. Improper planning and uncontrolled management of LULC changes profoundly contribute to the rise of urban land surface temperature (LST). This study evaluates the impact of LULC changes on LST for 1997, 2007 and 2017 in the Rajshahi district (Bangladesh) using multi-temporal and multi-spectral Landsat 8 OLI and Landsat 5 TM satellite data sets. The analysis of LULC changes exposed a remarkable increase in the built-up areas and a significant decrease in the vegetation and agricultural land. The built-up area was increased almost double in last 20 years in the study area. The distribution of changes in LST shows that built-up areas recorded the highest temperature followed by bare land, vegetation and agricultural land and water bodies. The LULC-LST profiles also revealed the highest temperature in built-up areas and the lowest temperature in water bodies. In the last 20 years, LST was increased about 13ºC. The study demonstrates decrease in vegetation cover and increase in non-evaporating surfaces with significantly increases the surface temperature in the study area. Remote-sensing techniques were found one of the suitable techniques for rapid analysis of urban expansions and to identify the impact of urbanization on LST.

scholarly journals Evaluating Forest Cover and Fragmentation in Costa Rica with a Corrected Global Tree Cover Map

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (19) ◽  
pp. 3226
Author(s):  
Daniel Cunningham ◽  
Paul Cunningham ◽  
Matthew E. Fagan
Keyword(s):  
Costa Rica ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Forest Area ◽  
Tree Cover ◽  
Agricultural Crop ◽  
Forest Change ◽  
Alos Palsar ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
The Impact

Global tree cover products face challenges in accurately predicting tree cover across biophysical gradients, such as precipitation or agricultural cover. To generate a natural forest cover map for Costa Rica, biases in tree cover estimation in the most widely used tree cover product (the Global Forest Change product (GFC) were quantified and corrected, and the impact of map biases on estimates of forest cover and fragmentation was examined. First, a forest reference dataset was developed to examine how the difference between reference and GFC-predicted tree cover estimates varied along gradients of precipitation and elevation, and nonlinear statistical models were fit to predict the bias. Next, an agricultural land cover map was generated by classifying Landsat and ALOS PalSAR imagery (overall accuracy of 97%) to allow removing six common agricultural crops from estimates of tree cover. Finally, the GFC product was corrected through an integrated process using the nonlinear predictions of precipitation and elevation biases and the agricultural crop map as inputs. The accuracy of tree cover prediction increased by ≈29% over the original global forest change product (the R2 rose from 0.416 to 0.538). Using an optimized 89% tree cover threshold to create a forest/nonforest map, we found that fragmentation declined and core forest area and connectivity increased in the corrected forest cover map, especially in dry tropical forests, protected areas, and designated habitat corridors. By contrast, the core forest area decreased locally where agricultural fields were removed from estimates of natural tree cover. This research demonstrates a simple, transferable methodology to correct for observed biases in the Global Forest Change product. The use of uncorrected tree cover products may markedly over- or underestimate forest cover and fragmentation, especially in tropical regions with low precipitation, significant topography, and/or perennial agricultural production.

scholarly journals How Does Radial Growth of Water-Stressed Populations of European Beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) Trees Vary under Multiple Drought Events?

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 129
Author(s):  
Tamalika Chakraborty ◽  
Albert Reif ◽  
Andreas Matzarakis ◽  
Somidh Saha
Keyword(s):  
Soil Water ◽  
Fagus Sylvatica ◽  
Tree Growth ◽  
Radial Growth ◽  
Basal Area ◽  
European Beech ◽  
Canopy Openness ◽  
Fagus Sylvatica L ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Neighborhood Competition

European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) trees are becoming vulnerable to drought, with a warming climate. Existing studies disagree on how radial growth varies in European beech in response to droughts. We aimed to find the impact of multiple droughts on beech trees’ annual radial growth at their ecological drought limit created by soil water availability in the forest. Besides, we quantified the influence of competition and canopy openness on the mean basal area growth of beech trees. We carried out this study in five near-natural temperate forests in three localities of Germany and Switzerland. We quantified available soil water storage capacity (AWC) in plots laid in the transition zone from oak to beech dominated forests. The plots were classified as ‘dry’ (AWC < 60 mL) and ‘less-dry’ (AWC > 60 mL). We performed dendroecological analyses starting from 1951 in continuous and discontinuous series to study the influence of climatic drought (i.e., precipitation-potential evapotranspiration) on the radial growth of beech trees in dry and less-dry plots. We used observed values for this analysis and did not use interpolated values from interpolated historical records in this study. We selected six drought events to study the resistance, recovery, and resilience of beech trees to drought at a discontinuous level. The radial growth was significantly higher in less-dry plots than dry plots. The increase in drought had reduced tree growth. Frequent climatic drought events resulted in more significant correlations, hence, increased the dependency of tree growth on AWC. We showed that the recovery and resilience to climatic drought were higher in trees in less-dry plots than dry plots, but it was the opposite for resistance. The resistance, recovery, and resilience of the trees were heterogeneous between the events of drought. Mean growth of beech trees (basal area increment) were negatively impacted by neighborhood competition and positively influenced by canopy openness. We emphasized that beech trees growing on soil with low AWC are at higher risk of growth decline. We concluded that changes in soil water conditions even at the microsite level could influence beech trees’ growth in their drought limit under the changing climate. Along with drought, neighborhood competition and lack of light can also reduce beech trees’ growth. This study will enrich the state of knowledge about the ongoing debate on the vulnerability of beech trees to drought in Europe.

scholarly journals The Role of Selected Ecosystem Services in Different Farming Systems in Poland Regarding the Differentiation of Agricultural Land Structure

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6673
Author(s):  
Lidia Luty ◽  
Kamila Musiał ◽  
Monika Zioło
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Soil Formation ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Agricultural System ◽  
Organic System ◽  
Supporting Soil ◽  
Management Method ◽  
The Impact

The functioning of various agroecosystems is nowadays shaped by different farming systems, which may impair their functions, as well as being beneficial to them. The benefits include ecosystem services, defined as economic and noneconomic values gained by humans from ecosystems, through supporting soil formation and nutrient circulation, and the impact of agriculture on climate and biodiversity. Their mutual flow and various disturbances depend on the agroecosystem’s management method, which is associated with the type of management of agricultural land (AL) in individual farms. This paper raises a problem of transformation in the structure of three main farming systems in Poland, in 2004–2018, in relation to the implementation of 16 selected ecosystem services and their scale. Special attention was given to organic farming, as the most environmentally friendly and sustainable. The analysis demonstrates the increase in ALs in that type of production during the analyzed period of time. Disparities of transformation associated with the type of agricultural system were noticeable at the regional level, which were presented in 16 Polish voivodeships. The results of the analysis confirm that the organic system, which is an important carrier of various ecosystem services, gained a stable position. Moreover, areas with integrated farming still do not exceed 0.5% of total agricultural lands in such voivodeships. The analysis of factors influencing the deterioration or disappearance of selected environmental services characterizing agricultural systems indicates the need to depart from an intensive conventional management system.

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