scholarly journals Soil Conservation in the 21st Century: Why we need Smart Intensification

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerard Govers ◽  
Roel Merckx ◽  
Bas Van Wesemael ◽  
Kristof Van Oost
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Conservation ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
Economic Incentive ◽  
Global South ◽  
Water Efficiency ◽  
Agricultural Systems ◽  
Erosion Risk ◽  
Organic Carbon Storage

Abstract. While the implementation of soil conservation depends on a multitude of factors, it is also clear that rapid change in agricultural systems only happens when a clear economic incentive is present. This fact, as well as the fact that agriculture will change fundamentally in the Global South over the next decades, need to be accounted for when developing a vision on how we may achieve effective soil conservation in the Global South. In this paper we argue that smart intensification is a necessary component of such strategy. Smart intensification will not only allow to make soil conservation more economical, but will also allow to make significant gains in term of soil organic carbon storage, water efficiency and biodiversity, while at the same time lowering the overall erosion risk. While smart intensification as such will not lead to adequate soil conservation, it will facilitate it and, at the same time, allow to offer the farmers of the Global South a viable future.

scholarly journals Soil conservation in the 21st century: why we need smart agricultural intensification

SOIL ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerard Govers ◽  
Roel Merckx ◽  
Bas van Wesemael ◽  
Kristof Van Oost
Keyword(s):  
Soil Conservation ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
Economic Incentive ◽  
Global South ◽  
Water Efficiency ◽  
Soil Resource ◽  
Erosion Risk ◽  
Conservation Measures ◽  
Organic Carbon Storage ◽  
Technical Solutions

Abstract. Soil erosion severely threatens the soil resource and the sustainability of agriculture. After decades of research, this problem still persists, despite the fact that adequate technical solutions now exist for most situations. This begs the question as to why soil conservation is not more rapidly and more generally implemented. Studies show that the implementation of soil conservation measures depends on a multitude of factors but it is also clear that rapid change in agricultural systems only happens when a clear economic incentive is present for the farmer. Conservation measures are often more or less cost-neutral, which explains why they are often less generally adopted than expected. This needs to be accounted for when developing a strategy on how we may achieve effective soil conservation in the Global South, where agriculture will fundamentally change in the next century. In this paper we argue that smart intensification is a necessary component of such a strategy. Smart intensification will not only allow for soil conservation to be made more economical, but will also allow for significant gains to be made in terms of soil organic carbon storage, water efficiency and biodiversity, while at the same time lowering the overall erosion risk. While smart intensification as such will not lead to adequate soil conservation, it will facilitate it and, at the same time, allow for the farmers of the Global South to be offered a more viable future.

scholarly journals A Two-Stage Approach to the Estimation of High-Resolution Soil Organic Carbon Storage with Good Extension Capability

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 517
Author(s):  
Sunwei Wei ◽  
Zhengyong Zhao ◽  
Qi Yang ◽  
Xiaogang Ding
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon ◽  
Carbon Storage ◽  
Guangdong Province ◽  
Soil Samples ◽  
Estimation Accuracy ◽  
Ann Model ◽  
Soil Layers ◽  
Second Stage ◽  
Organic Carbon Storage

Soil organic carbon storage (SOCS) estimation is a crucial branch of the atmospheric–vegetation–soil carbon cycle study under the background of global climate change. SOCS research has increased worldwide. The objective of this study is to develop a two-stage approach with good extension capability to estimate SOCS. In the first stage, an artificial neural network (ANN) model is adopted to estimate SOCS based on 255 soil samples with five soil layers (20 cm increments to 100 cm) in Luoding, Guangdong Province, China. This method is compared with three common methods: The soil type method (STM), ordinary kriging (OK), and radial basis function (RBF) interpolation. In the second stage, a linear model is introduced to capture the regional differences and further improve the estimation accuracy of the Luoding-based ANN model when extending it to Xinxing, Guangdong Province. This is done after assessing the generalizability of the above four methods with 120 soil samples from Xinxing. The results for the first stage show that the ANN model has much better estimation accuracy than STM, OK, and RBF, with the average root mean square error (RMSE) of the five soil layers decreasing by 0.62–0.90 kg·m−2, R2 increasing from 0.54 to 0.65, and the mean absolute error decreasing from 0.32 to 0.42. Moreover, the spatial distribution maps produced by the ANN model are more accurate than those of other methods for describing the overall and local SOCS in detail. The results of the second stage indicate that STM, OK, and RBF have poor generalizability (R2 < 0.1), and the R2 value obtained with ANN method is also 43–56% lower for the five soil layers compared with the estimation accuracy achieved in Luoding. However, the R2 of the linear models built with the 20% soil samples from Xinxing are 0.23–0.29 higher for the five soil layers. Thus, the ANN model is an effective method for accurately estimating SOCS on a regional scale with a small number of field samples. The linear model could easily extend the ANN model to outside areas where the ANN model was originally developed with a better level of accuracy.

scholarly journals Soil organic carbon in irrigated agricultural systems: a meta‐analysis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Emde ◽  
Kirsten Hannam ◽  
Ilka Most ◽  
Louise Nelson ◽  
Melanie Jones
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Agricultural Systems

Estimations of soil organic carbon storage in cropland of China based on DNDC model

Geoderma ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 134 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 200-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huajun Tang ◽  
Jianjun Qiu ◽  
Eric Van Ranst ◽  
Changsheng Li
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon ◽  
Carbon Storage ◽  
Dndc Model ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon Storage ◽  
Organic Carbon Storage

Estimating soil organic carbon storage and distribution in a catchment of Loess Plateau, China

Geoderma ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 154 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 261-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fengpeng Han ◽  
Wei Hu ◽  
Jiyong Zheng ◽  
Feng Du ◽  
Xingchang Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon ◽  
Carbon Storage ◽  
Loess Plateau ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon Storage ◽  
Organic Carbon Storage

scholarly journals Effects of land use changes and conservation measures on land degradation under a Mediterranean climate

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Mohawesh ◽  
A. Taimeh ◽  
F. Ziadat
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon ◽  
Land Degradation ◽  
Soil Conservation ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Conservation Measures ◽  
Stone Walls ◽  
Effects Of Land Use ◽  
Soil Conservation Measures

Abstract. Land degradation resulting from improper land use and management is a major cause of declined productivity in the arid environment. The objectives of this study were to examine the effects of a sequence of land use changes, soil conservation measures, and the time since their implementation on the degradation of selected soil properties. The climate for the selected 105 km2 watershed varies from semi-arid sub-tropical to Mediterranean sub-humid. Land use changes were detected using aerial photographs acquired in 1953, 1978, and 2008. A total of 218 samples were collected from 40 sites in three different rainfall zones to represent different land use changes and different lengths of time since the construction of stone walls. Analyses of variance were used to test the differences between the sequences of land use changes (interchangeable sequences of forest, orchards, field crops, and range), the time since the implementation of soil conservation measures, and rainfall on the thickness of the A-horizon, soil organic carbon content, and texture. Soil organic carbon reacts actively with different combinations and sequences of land use changes. The time since stone walls were constructed showed significant impacts on soil organic carbon and the thickness of the surface horizon. The effects of changing the land use and whether the changes were associated with the construction of stone walls, varied according to the annual rainfall. The results help in understanding the effects of land use changes on land degradation processes and carbon sequestration potential and in formulating sound soil conservation plans.

Spatial Distribution and Reserves Estimation of Soil Organic Carbon Based on GIS in Maiji Area of Tianshui

2013 ◽  
Vol 316-317 ◽  
pp. 299-306
Author(s):  
Ai Hong Gai ◽  
Ren Zhi Zhang ◽  
Fang Chen ◽  
Xiao Long Wang
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon ◽  
Average Density ◽  
Soil Survey ◽  
Soil Conditions ◽  
Carbon Density ◽  
Deep Soil ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon Density ◽  
Secondary Survey ◽  
Organic Carbon Storage

The soil organic carbon density and storage of Maiji Area of Tianshui was estmiated, using the data of 6060 soil profile from the second soil survey of China and formulating fertilization for soil conditions in 2008. Integrating the soil map, land use status map and district map of Maiji Area of Tianshui, the index of the characteristic of soil organic distribution in different soil and soil layers were analyzed. Results showed: the soil of Maiji area have low average density, when soil secondary census, depths of 5cm,20cm,1m average density of organic carbon are 0.92kg•m-2,3.31kg•m-2,7.79kg•m-2 respectively, average density of organic carbon at depth of 20cm is 2.43 kg•m-2 in 2008 years, As a standard of Yu Dongsheng’s (2005) estimation of average density of 9.60 kg•m-2 in the depth of 1m all over the China, Maiji area 1m deep soil organic carbon density is lower 1.91kg•m-2 than the average density of whole country; The calculation of the secondary survey, reserves of organic carbon in surface soil (0-5cm) is about 4.83×106t, reserves of organic carbon in fall (0-20cm) is about 12.46×106t, reserves of soil organic carbon in 1m depth is about 45.17×106t, reserves of soil organic carbon in fall (0-20cm) is about 18.55×106t in 2008 years. In a word, the soil organic carbon storage was relatively indigent in Maiji Area of Tianshui.

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