Remote sensing and ground based assessment of distribution of land cover parameters inthe catchment area of Wadi el K’sob M’sila (Algeria)

Abstract

Remote sensing methodology was applied to assess two land cover parameters (elevation and soil moisture) in the first stage.Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) digital elevation model (DEM) was used to build a map of the water catchment basins within the Wadi El K'sob area. Relative soil moisture for the territory of the Wadi El K'sob catchment area was estimated by using the Sentinel-1/Multispectral Instrument (MSI) and Landsat-8/Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) optical multispectral data. Elevation data of the sampling points range from 398 to 1081 meters above sea level. Soil moisturevaried from 0.2 to 0.37 relative units. The effects of altitude and physico-chemical properties of soil on soil microflora communities in the catchment area of Wadi El K'sob M’sila (Algeria) were investigated in the second stage. The work presented here identified three groups of microorganisms in the soil samples collected in spring 2017from 7 locations situated in the catchment area of Wadi El K'sob M’sila (Algeria) along with 11 physico-chemical characteristics. Statistical tests showed that actinomycetes, fungi and mesophilic bacteria were positively correlated to the altitude. The results revealed that the microflora communities was very dependent on soil physico-chemical characteristics, the main parameters were relative soil moisture, texture, pH, electrical conductivity, organic carbon, organic matter, total nitrogen and available potassium. Generally, the parameters analyzed in this study, indicate a change in the soil microflora community according to the altitudinal and soil physico-chemical variations.