Environmental change, geomorphic processes and land degradation in tropical highlands

Nyssen, Jan; Poesen, Jean; Haregeweyn, Nigussie; Parsons, Tony

doi:10.1016/j.catena.2008.04.010

Cited by 14 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…In contrast to modern research on land degradation occurring as a result of intensive agricultural land use (Hudson & Alcántara-Alaya, 2006;Nyssen et al, 2008), this study demonstrates how improvement of land in a hypersaline environment is possible without degradation. It also discusses whether or not gardening inevitably leads to (1) increased plant diversity, (2) decreased salinisation and (3) an inappropriate increase/decrease in exchangeable cations and Ca:Mg ratios, which are important for plant growth (Landon, 1993).…”

Section: Fig 1: Location Of the Investigated Site At 'Eyrhocontrasting

confidence: 90%

Mubarak’S Garden. Land Improvement on a Dry Tropical Island in the Arabian Sea

Pietsch

Kühn

Morris

2013

Journal of Landscape Ecology

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Inhabited dry tropical regions are principally seen as vulnerable areas, especially if people have limited access to suitable land, fresh water and crop seeds. From the traditional, but also from the scientific point of view in some cases, it might be considered to be exceptional, indeed pointless, for people to try to improve land in such an arid environment. But for people living directly on a hypersaline coastline, experiments in crop cultivation are necessary to produce additional fruits and vegetables, using either traditional or adapted techniques of land cultivation. Soil investigations in a kitchen-garden situated on the northern coast of Soqotra Island, Yemen, show that one year of cultivation increased Corg contents from 0 up to 0.7%, and Pav contents from 100 mg kg-1 up to 230 mg kg-1 in the garden beds. A general decrease in slightly soluble salts - explained by irrigation with fresh water - is already obvious after only one year: decreasing from 6.7% slightly soluble salt in marine sand, to 0.3% slightly soluble salt in cultivated beds. A vertical increase of clay content in sediments and soils, and also an inland increase of clay content, was observed. It is hoped that this example will encourage future research on kitchen-gardens, since they have a beneficial effect on society as well as having positive environmental consequences, as seen in the present case of land improvement on Soqotra Island in the Arabian Sea

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Section: Fig 1: Location Of the Investigated Site At 'Eyrhocontrasting

confidence: 90%

Mubarak’S Garden. Land Improvement on a Dry Tropical Island in the Arabian Sea

Pietsch

Kühn

Morris

2013

Journal of Landscape Ecology

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“…Anderson and Thampapillai, 1990). Land degradation due to erosion leads to a decline in productivity over time and to a reduction in the actual and potential use of the land (Blaikie and Brookfield, 1987;Dalelo, 2001;Nyssen et al, 2008). In addition, as the inclination of slopes increases, water erosion is even more marked (Cerdá and García-Fayos, 1997), and in the Yemen Highlands, slopes with high inclinations of more than 30°a re used for agriculture.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Terrace soils in the Yemen Highlands: Using physical, chemical and radiometric data to assess their suitability for agriculture and their vulnerability to degradation

Pietsch

Mabit

2012

Geoderma

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“…Sustaining agricultural productivity and livelihoods in the tropical humid highland ecosystems is increasingly becoming an enormous challenge [1,2,3]. The fragility of the slopes coupled with the increasing population and limited livelihood opportunities has led to increased soil erosion [4,5,6,7]. A compendium of literature reveals high soil erosion in the highlands [7,8,9,10,11,12,13] emphasizing soil and nutrient losses as a key land degradation challenge in most of the humid high land ecosystems of East Africa; that has resulted in negative effects on soil fertility.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil and Nutrient Losses under Cultivated Bush and Climbing Beans on Terraced Humid Highland Slopes of Southwestern Uganda

Gabiri

Obando

Tenywa

et al. 2015

JSRR

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Highland regions characterized with terraced slopes in East Africa are faced with serious soil and nutrient losses that have affected agricultural productivity. However, limited studies have analysed the soil and nutrient losses on terraced slopes of these humid highland regions. Therefore, this study was conducted to assess the effects of climbing beans over the traditional bush beans' cultivation on soil erosion control in Bufundi sub catchment, Kabale District, South-western Uganda. Runoff trap approach was employed to assess erosion and the sites were characterized Original Research Article

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Environmental change, geomorphic processes and land degradation in tropical highlands

Cited by 14 publications

References 23 publications

Mubarak’S Garden. Land Improvement on a Dry Tropical Island in the Arabian Sea

Mubarak’S Garden. Land Improvement on a Dry Tropical Island in the Arabian Sea

Terrace soils in the Yemen Highlands: Using physical, chemical and radiometric data to assess their suitability for agriculture and their vulnerability to degradation

Soil and Nutrient Losses under Cultivated Bush and Climbing Beans on Terraced Humid Highland Slopes of Southwestern Uganda

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