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Soils with Problems Due to Anthropogenic Reasons (Degraded Soils)
Published in Manorama K.C. Thampatti, Problem Soils, 2023
Soil degradation is broadly defined as the physical, chemical and biological decline in soil quality, caused mainly due to its misuse by humans. It can be defined as the rate of adverse changes in soil qualities such as nutrient status, soil depth, soil reaction, salt content etc. resulting decline in productive capacity of land due to processes induced mainly by human intervention. It can be the loss of organic matter, decline in soil fertility and structural condition, erosion, adverse changes in salinity, acidity or alkalinity, and the effects of toxic chemicals, pollutants or excessive flooding. To assess the extent of soil degradation, degradation maps were prepared and in India degraded soils cover an area of 187 M ha, representing almost 57 per cent of the total geographical area (Bhattacharyya et al., 2015).
Sustainable Development in Agriculture by Revitalization of PGPR
Published in Ram Naresh Bharagava, Sandhya Mishra, Ganesh Dattatraya Saratale, Rijuta Ganesh Saratale, Luiz Fernando Romanholo Ferreira, Bioremediation, 2022
Nandkishor More, Anjali Verma, Ram Naresh Bharagava, Arun S Kharat, Rajnish Gautam, Dimuth Navaratna
Sustainable agriculture also focuses on helping farmers improve their quality of life with maintaining economic stability of farms. The most common techniques include growing plants and many farming strategies or methods that can create their own nutrients to reduce the use of fertilizers and rotating crops in fields, which reduce pesticide use because the change of crops helps make agriculture more sustainable. Another technique is mixing crops, which decreases the need for pesticides and herbicides with the risk of a disease destroying a whole crop and many benefits of sustainable agriculture, which can be divided into two groups, i.e. human health benefits and environmental benefits. Sustainable agriculture uses 30% less energy per unit of crop yield in comparison with industrialized agriculture, one of the most important benefits to the environment. Sustainable agriculture increases area biodiversity and also benefits the environment by reducing soil degradation, balancing soil quality, preventing erosion and saving water. Additionally, sustainable agriculture provided these benefits in three dimensions – ecological, economic and social sustainability – with a variety of organisms with healthy and natural environments to live. The sustainable development of agriculture decreases the use of hazardous chemicals, controls pests and facilitates increased quality of top soil by storing and conserving the rain water. An improper use of pesticides and unacceptable storage may also lead to health problems.
A Science, Technology, and Society Approach to Studying the Cumin Revolution in Western India
Published in Utku Kose, V. B. Surya Prasath, M. Rubaiyat Hossain Mondal, Prajoy Podder, Subrato Bharati, Artificial Intelligence and Smart Agriculture Technology, 2022
The Gujarat state, Gujarat mainland, Saurashtra region, and Kachchh can be grouped together in terms of groundwater resources. All water-bearing units have experienced a decrease in water levels on the Gujarat mainland. Alluvial sub-aquifer levels have dropped due to excessive pumping. The water level shrunk by about 40 to 60 meters between 1982 and 1991. The overpumping of subaquifers is clearly visible. In Saurashtra, the landscape is similar, where the water table dropped between 0 and 4 meters between 1982 and 1991 (DES, 2000). This ratio was extremely variable (as much as several tens of meters). For the same reason, overuse of groundwater reserves is again documented in numerous locations, particularly in the area around the city of Surat in the southern part of the state of Gujarat. Rising extraction by private firms for domestic, farming, and business purposes, as well as extraction that the government sponsors for cities to supply clean water, are among the primary reasons for falling water levels in several regions of the country. Salinity is a major source of soil degradation caused by groundwater resources, seawater intrusion, and the use of deeper saline aquifers for irrigation. Most of the soil in coastal areas is saline (Institute of Rural Management, 1999).
Comparative zinc tolerance and phytoremediation potential of four biofuel plant species
Published in International Journal of Phytoremediation, 2023
Hira Amin, Basir Ahmed Arain, Taj Muhammad Jahangir, Abdul Rasool Abbasi, Muhammad Sadiq Abbasi, Farah Amin
Heavy metal (HM) pollution has become one of the most serious environmental problems in the world (Tóth et al. 2016). It is caused by both natural and anthropogenic processes (Asgari Lajayer et al. 2019). In recent decades, rapid industrialization and urbanization have significantly increased soil contamination with heavy metals such as Zn (Bolan et al. 2014). HM is a non-biodegradable contaminant that persists indefinitely in various environmental matrices (Guarino et al. 2020). Due to its high density and toxicity, it is considered as a toxic environmental pollutant even at low concentrations (Pandey and Madhuri 2014). Metal contaminant exists in soil in various forms and can pose a threat to soil components, leading to soil degradation, photosynthetic activity, enzymatic reactions, and reduced plant growth by affecting nutrient balance (Li et al. 2021a). These metals can also accumulate in the human body through the food chain and cause various health problems (Hu et al. 2020).
Assessment of the effects of land use/cover changes on soil loss and sediment export in the Tul Watershed, Northwest Ethiopia using the RUSLE and InVEST models
Published in International Journal of River Basin Management, 2023
The continuous soil degradation is caused by the intermingled factors of population pressure, inappropriate farming practices, agricultural expansion, cutting of live woody plants for fuelwood and charcoal production, topography, and overgrazing (Angessa et al., 2019; Yalew et al., 2016). Persistent use of conventional farming practices based on intensive tillage, and removal of crop residues is often considered a proximate cause of soil degradation. Use of crop straw for fuel energy consumption, free grazing, and expansion of cropland towards steep slope areas are other major practices under the inappropriate land use and management system. Conversion of natural forest to cropland significantly declines major soil quality indicators, such as soil organic carbon and nitrogen (Delelegn et al., 2017). The proximate causes are indirectly affected by the underlying factors. The weak institutional arrangement, poverty, and insecure land tenure could underlie soil degradation.
Influence of different phytoremediation on soil microbial diversity and community composition in saline-alkaline land
Published in International Journal of Phytoremediation, 2022
Fengxia Li, Yongzhong Guo, Zhangjun Wang, Yangxiu Mu
Soil degradation caused by salinization is one of the main factors restricting agricultural production, and this phenomenon is becoming more and more serious, causing economic losses and agricultural sustainable development, and endangering global food security, especially in saline-alkali soil (Qadir et al. 2014). In addition to the primary saline-alkali soil, topography, climate and human factors play important roles in the formation and evolution of sub saline-alkali soil (Zhao et al. 2020). It is predicted that half of the cultivated land on the earth will be affected by salinization by 2050 (Wang et al. 2003). However, salinization is one of the main abiotic stress conditions affecting the survival mechanism of plants at the cell, tissue and plant level, which is characterized by osmotic stress at the early stage of plant growth and ion stress at the later stage (Lokhande et al. 2013; Jesus et al. 2015). Therefore, rational development and utilization of saline-alkali land is very important in the sustainable development of agriculture in China.