China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Influence of Soil Erosion on Carbon Dynamics in the World
Published in Eric J. Roose, Rattan Lal, Christian Feller, Bernard Barthès, Bobby A. Stewart, Soil Erosion and Carbon Dynamics, 2005
Soil degradation affects SOC pool directly and indirectly. Directly, it reduces the impact of biomass C into the system because of reduction in NPP and decrease in water and nutrient availability with attendant reduction in biodiversity. Indirectly, it leads to disruption in biogeochemical cycles and decline in soil resilience. Soil degradation also accentuates losses of SOC pool by exacerbating the rate of mineralization, leaching, and soil erosion. Soil erosion hazard may increase due to increase in erodibility and erosivity factors. Rains may become more intense and of high erosivity. Consequently, susceptibility to both water and rill erosion may increase, with attendant effects on depletion of SOC pool (Smith et al., 1997), which may be exacerbated by aridization of the climate, such as in the Mediterranean region (Lavée et al., 1998). The fragile ecosystems of arid and semiarid climates may be highly sensitive to desertification even with minor changes in rainfall distribution and temperature regime (Puigdefabregas, 1998; Villers-Rúiz and Trejo-Vázquez, 1998). Desertification and CO2-induced climate change are intricately linked. Desertification leads to reduction in biological productivity of the ecosystem and long-term loss of natural vegetation, which reduces the biomass input into the soil. The land area prone to desertification is 7 million km2 in Africa (assuming 25% reduction in productivity) and is increasing.
Organic Amendments for Sustainable Crop Production, Soil Carbon Sequestration and Climate Smart Agriculture
Published in Moonisa Aslam Dervash, Akhlaq Amin Wani, Climate Change Alleviation for Sustainable Progression, 2022
Maryam Adil, Muhammad Riaz, Farah Riaz, Komel Jehangir, Muhammad Arslan Ashraf, Sajid Ali, Rashid Mahmood, Qaiser Hussain, Afia Zia, Muhammad Arif
There are many management practices to enhance soil organic matter and soil nutrients; however, at the same time, a few challenges relating to their fate at soil-plant interphase including humification, selective preservation and progressive decomposition need to be tackled. Jenkinson and Rayner (2006) described that these factors determine nutrient availability to plants and animals at the onset of decomposition. The humification process involves the transfer of primary decomposed products into bulky, dark coloured compounds wherein C and N are involved in decomposition (Stevenson, 1994). Humic substances are responsible for soil cation exchange capacity and chemical reactions with iron, aluminium and other metals. However, selective preservation of organic matter leads to preferential organic matter decomposition (Aber et al., 1990; Sollins et al., 1996). During this process, comparatively recalcitrant organic materials get decomposed by microorganisms under suitable environmental conditions (Hamer et al., 2004; Yang et al., 2014). The notion of biopolymer degradation is also used at many stages of decomposition for organic matter fragments and microbial products contained within the soil organic matter (Cotrufo et al., 2012). The process of soil organic matter decomposition is performed by heterotrophic microorganisms under the stimulus of temperature and optimal soil conditions which also enable cycling of N, P and S involving interactions between the soil and plants (Murphy et al., 2007). Organic matter improves soil health by retaining plant-available nutrients during decomposition (Janzen, 2015). As a result, soil organic matter has the ability to reduce pollutants transfer into plants and leaching into water resources. Soil organic matter also reduces toxicity of heavy metals and organic pollutants by binding them to humic substances, and metabolism, transformation and adsorption of such pollutants depend on interactions with soil organic matter (Aristilde and Sposito, 2013; Fakour and Lin, 2014; Tang et al., 2014). Good soil quality can be expressed in terms of resilience which is defined as the ability to recover after disruption. Soil resilience can be contingent on a delicate balance between restorative and degrading processes. Many factors affecting resilience are considered as internal and external. Internal or local factors are associated with indigenous soil properties, such as rooting depth, texture, structure and microclimate, while exogenous factors take account of land use farming system and input management. Therefore, suitable agricultural practices can influence these factors to enhance resilience of soil (Lal, 2004). In this regard, soil organic matter and soil organisms contribute significantly to better soil resilience and soil quality (Whitbread et al., 1998). Therefore, soil organic matter management is a prerequisite for sustainable crop production and optimising of favourable physical and biochemical soil properties which have numerous benefits for cropping systems, including increasing soil organic C contents, diversity and reduced C loss (Weil and Magdoff, 2004).
Effect of soil moisture on soil compaction during skidding operations in poplar plantation
Published in International Journal of Forest Engineering, 2021
Farzam Tavankar, Rodolfo Picchio, Mehrdad Nikooy, Meghdad Jourgholami, Francesco Latterini, Rachele Venanzi
Soil as a critical element for sustainable forest management is a relatively nonrenewable natural resource, but sustainable forest management and appropriate application of logging activities could guarantee proper soil resilience. According to study results, for clay or clay loam soil, our suggestions for reducing soil compaction caused by ground-based logging in poplar plantations are as follows: Skidding operations should occur when the soil is dry and stopped when the soil is moist.Create and use designated skid trails which carry high traffic loads and limit the number of areas where trafficking occurs with one, two, or three passes.During trail layout, avoid low areas where water will drain (stay on higher ground) or place corduroy perpendicular to the area to be trafficked; or move operations to dry portions of the site or to a different site if rutting occurs.Apply best management practices (BMP), such as progressive (back-to-front) harvesting.