Effects of Different Land Uses (Abandoned Farmland, Intensive Agriculture and Forest) on Soil Hydrological Properties in Southern Spain

Lucas‐Borja, Manuel Esteban; Zema, Demetrio Antonio; Plaza‐Álvarez, Pedro Antonio; Zupanc, Vesna; Baartman, Jantiene; Sagra, J.; González-Romero, J.; Heras, Jorge de las

doi:10.3390/w11030503

Cited by 49 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…The results obtained in this study compare well with other studies conducted elsewhere in the world. For example, a study carried out in Southern Spain on soil hydrological properties in different land uses showed that in intensive agriculture, the soil was more compacted (mean bulk density of 1.25 g/cm 3 ), while in forest, the soil had a lower bulk density (0.83 g/cm 3 ) [37]. Another study [38] done on the soil properties and water infiltration of Andosols in Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain) found an increase in bulk density in cropped soil compared to the green forest.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of Land Use Change and Its Impact on the Hydrology of Kakia and Esamburmbur Sub-Watersheds of Narok County, Kenya

Mireille

Mwangi

et al. 2019

Hydrology

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Narok town is one of the places in Kenya which experience catastrophic floods. Many lives have been lost and valuable property destroyed in recent years. Change in land use/land cover upstream of the town area may have contributed significantly to the severity and frequency of flooding events. Runoff, which contributes to floods in Narok town, comes from Kakia and Esamburmbur sub-catchments of Enkare Narok watershed. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of land use/land cover change on the hydrology of Kakia and Esamburmbur sub-watersheds. To detect land use/land cover change, Landsat satellite images from 1985 to 2019 were used. Using supervised classification in Erdas Imagine 2014, land use of the study area was classified into four classes, i.e., forest, rangeland, agriculture and built-up areas. Five land use maps (1985, 1995, 2000, 2010, and 2019) were developed and used to perform land use change analysis. There was rampart conversion of forest to other land uses. Between 1985 and 2019, the forest and rangeland declined by 40.3% and 25.6% of the study area, respectively, while agriculture and built-up areas increased by 55.2% and 10.6% of the study area respectively. Analysis of soil hydrological properties indicate that the infiltration rate and soil hydraulic conductivity were greatest in forest than in other land use types. The basic infiltration rate in forest land was 89.1 cm/h while in rangeland and agricultural land, it was 7.9 cm/h and 15 cm/h respectively. At the top-soil layer, average soil hydraulic conductivity under forest was 46.3 cm/h, under rangeland, 2.6 cm/h and under agriculture, 4.9 cm/h. The low hydraulic conductivity in rangeland and agriculture was attributed to compaction by farm machinery (tractors) and livestock respectively. An interesting observation was made in rangelands where the top layer (0–20 cm) had a higher bulk density and a lower hydraulic conductivity as compared to the next deeper layer (20–40 cm). This was attributed to the combined impact of compaction and localised pressure by hooves of livestock which only have an impact on the top layer. The findings of this study show that land use has a major impact on soil hydrological properties and imply that the observed land use changes negatively affected the soil hydrological properties of the watershed. The decreased infiltration in the increasing areas of degraded land (mainly agriculture and rangeland) and increase in built-up area in Narok town are the possible causes of the increased flood risk in Narok town. It is recommended that flood risk management strategies in Narok town include watershed management to enhance water infiltration.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of Land Use Change and Its Impact on the Hydrology of Kakia and Esamburmbur Sub-Watersheds of Narok County, Kenya

Mireille

Mwangi

et al. 2019

Hydrology

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“…This is important for understanding changes in soil fertility in abandoned lands and the risk of soil degradation. Similarly, more work has to be done on how much soils in abandoned fields are affected by water repellency [82], a phenomenon that decreases infiltration capacity and may explain the high variability of runoff responses in abandoned lands.…”

Section: Open Questionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Critical Environmental Issues Confirm the Relevance of Abandoned Agricultural Land

Lana-Renault

Nadal‐Romero

Cammeraat

et al. 2020

Water

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Large areas worldwide have been affected by farmland abandonment and subsequent plant colonization with significant environmental consequences. Although the process of farmland abandonment has slowed down, vegetation recovery in abandoned lands is far from complete. In addition, agricultural areas and pasture lands with low-intensity activities could be abandoned in the near future. In this foreword, we review current knowledge of the impacts of farmland abandonment on water resources and soil conservation, and we highlight the open questions that still persist, in particular regarding terraced landscapes, afforested areas, abandonment of woody crops, traditional irrigated fields, solute yields, long-term trends in the response of abandoned areas, and the management of abandoned farmland. This Special Issue includes seven contributions that illustrate recent research into the hydrological, geomorphological, and edaphological consequences of farmland abandonment.

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“…A lot of research has already been conducted to reveal the impact of SWR on the soil ecosystem under forest and fire‐affected soils (Debano, 2000; Plaza‐Álvarez et al, 2018; Weninger, Filipovi, Me, Clothier, & Filipovi, 2019). However, because the degree of SWR in farmland tillage soil is smaller than the forest and fire‐affected soils (Lucas‐Borja et al, 2019; Stavi, Barkai, Knoll, & Zaady, 2016), there is a lack of research on the SWR in farmland, especially for the study on how conservation agriculture affect SWR. The small degree of SWR, known as subcritical water repellency (Hallett, Baumgartl, & Young, 2001), can also have a considerable effect on soil structure and hydraulic properties (Hunter, Chau, & Si, 2011; Tadayonnejad, Mosaddeghi, & Ghorbani, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors governing soil water repellency under tillage management: The role of pore structure and hydrophobic substances

Liang

et al. 2020

Land Degrad Dev

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Soil water repellency (SWR) has significant effects on soil degradation by changing some soil processes (e.g., carbon sequestration and soil erosion). Understanding the influence factors of SWR under conservation agriculture are playing a vital role in the sustainable development for improving soil quality. However, how soil pore structure influence on SWR remains unclear. We aim to assess the impact of hydrophobic substances and pore structure on SWR. Here we conducted two long‐term experimental fields with three treatments: conventional tillage (CT), reduced tillage (RT), and no‐tillage (NT). X‐ray tomography and the sorptivity method were used to measure soil pore structure and SWR, respectively. We found that soil organic carbon (SOC) and microbial biomass carbon (MBC) were higher in RT and NT treatments than in CT. MBC had significant influences on soil water sorptivity (Sw) and water repellency index (RI; p < 0.001), whereas SOC had no influence on Sw (p > 0.05). MBC also showed a closer relationship with SWR than SOC in redundancy analysis. The RT and NT increased the porosity of 55–165 μm that had a positive relationship with ethanol sorptivity and RI (p < 0.05). Ethanol sorptivity increased with an increase in soil pore porosity and connectivity under RT and NT treatments. However, increasing the pore surface area could decrease Sw due to enhance contact area between hydrophobic substances and soil water. Overall, the RT and NT treatments increased the water repellency index, which was a result of the interactions between pore structure and hydrophobic substances.

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Effects of Different Land Uses (Abandoned Farmland, Intensive Agriculture and Forest) on Soil Hydrological Properties in Southern Spain

Cited by 49 publications

References 56 publications

Analysis of Land Use Change and Its Impact on the Hydrology of Kakia and Esamburmbur Sub-Watersheds of Narok County, Kenya

Analysis of Land Use Change and Its Impact on the Hydrology of Kakia and Esamburmbur Sub-Watersheds of Narok County, Kenya

Critical Environmental Issues Confirm the Relevance of Abandoned Agricultural Land

Factors governing soil water repellency under tillage management: The role of pore structure and hydrophobic substances

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