Scattered paddock trees, litter chemistry, and surface soil properties in pastures of the New England Tablelands, New South Wales

Graham, Stewart F.; Wilson, Brian; Reid, Nick; Jones, Haydon S.

doi:10.1071/sr03065

Cited by 31 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…The observed patterns of litter loads under isolated tree crowns may have important consequences for nutrient cycling and habitat in scattered tree ecosystems. The higher surface foliar litter densities under canopies that normally correlates positively with higher nutrient recapitalization from the tree is in agreement with observations by many scientists [17,40,41].…”

Section: Quantity and Nutrient Composition Of Litter Of The Farmer Pesupporting

confidence: 79%

Validation of Farmer Perceived Soil Fertility Improving Tree Species in Agropastoral Communities of Bushenyi District

Muzoora

Turyahabwe

Majaliwa³

2011

International Journal of Agronomy

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In sub-Saharan Africa, including Uganda, there is declining soil fertility and limited on-farm use of inorganic fertilizers due to poverty and limited subsidies for inorganic fertilizer use. Thus, integration of soil fertility improving tree species (SFITs) in farming systems remains a plausible option to sustaining soil productivity. However, knowledge of the effects of many of the locally growing farmer perceived soil fertility enhancing tree species on to soil chemical and nutrient contents are thus still lacking, and this has constrained decisions on their adoption and scaling up. The objectives of this paper were to identify farmers' preferred soil fertility improving tree species in agropastoral communities of Kyeizooba subcounty Bushenyi district, and characterize their litter content and assess their effect on selected soil chemical properties. Semistructured questionnaires were administered to 333 randomly selected agropastoral farmers. Litter and soils under canopy soils were sampled from three different environments: Under canopy radius (A), canopy edge (B), open pasture land up to thrice the canopy radius (C). Results revealed Eucalyptus as the most common tree species on livestock farms, followed by Erythrina abyssinica. The highest litter content was recorded for Markhamia lutea (240 g/cm 2 under its canopy) followed by Croton macrostachyus (90 g/cm 2 ), and 19 g/cm 2 Erythrina abyssinica. Nitrogen was higher (P = .02) in Erythrina abyssinica litter, K and carbon in Croton macrostachyus litter (P = .03). These results give evidence that of soil improvers Erythrina abyssinica, Croton macrostachyus, and Markhamia lutea may positively affect soil fertility. Farmers' indigenous knowledge and or valuation of important tree species can be relied on, and thus, their indigenous knowledge need to be incorporated during identification of tree species for promotion in farming systems.

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Section: Quantity and Nutrient Composition Of Litter Of The Farmer Pesupporting

confidence: 79%

Validation of Farmer Perceived Soil Fertility Improving Tree Species in Agropastoral Communities of Bushenyi District

Muzoora

Turyahabwe

Majaliwa³

2011

International Journal of Agronomy

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“…Secondly, there were significant declines in soluble Ca 2+ , K + and Mg 2+ , pH, EC and available P with increasing distance from the trees, patterns which have been observed elsewhere (e.g. Wilson et al, 2002;Graham et al, 2004). However, no clearly-defined patterns were apparent with distance from the tree trunk for C, N and S. Thirdly, apart from pH which exhibited an initial decline to 10 cm and then a rapid increase, the concentration of nutrients generally declined with depth in the soil profile ( Figure 4).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 70%

“…Belsky, 1994;Deans et al, 1999;Scholes, 1990), there are relatively few data from the temperate box woodlands of eastern Australia (see however Graham et al, 2004;Wilson et al, 2002). The present study aims to understand more about the impact of trees growing in clumps and isolated trees on surrounding soils.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Clumped and isolated trees influence soil nutrient levels in an Australian temperate box woodland

Eldridge¹,

Wong

2005

Plant Soil

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Isolated paddock trees are a common feature of agri-pastoral landscapes in south-eastern Australia. We assessed the impact of trees on soil nutrients by examining (1) changes in soil nutrients under clumped and isolated (living and dead) trees at four microsites corresponding with increasing distance from the trunk (trunk, mid-canopy, drip line, open), and (2) changes with depth under trees growing in clearly-defined clumps. We detected significantly greater concentrations of organic C, and total N and S under trees growing in clumps compared with either isolated living or dead trees. Levels of soluble Ca 2+ , K + and Mg 2+ , pH, electrical conductivity (EC) and available P declined with increasing distance from the trees, but there were no significant trends for organic C, or total N and S. The concentration of most nutrients declined with depth, particularly at microsites close to the trunk, while pH increased with depth. We believe that differences in chemistry were largely driven by greater inputs of organic matter under the trees. This study reinforces the view that trees, whether scattered or in clumps, are important for soil nutrient conservation in agri-pastoral landscapes.

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“…Thinning stands either maintained, or improved, soil C, N, S, and extractable P relative to dense or un-colonised plots. Across a range of environments, soil nutrients have been found in higher concentrations in the zone around trees relative to adjacent pasture or ground-storey vegetation (e.g., Ryan and McGarity 1983;Belsky et al 1993a, b;Dean et al 1999;Wilson 2002;Graham et al 2004;Wilson and Lemon 2004) and our results suggest that this is so even for stands of C. glaucophylla. Therefore, the retention of this species in the landscape can create local 'environmental improvements' (Ozolins et al 2001).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 46%

“…Noble and Randall (1999) suggested that the effects of plant litter on surface soils might depend on the ash alkalinity of the litter. The C. glaucophylla litter might therefore have quality such that it causes surface acidification in a similar fashion to that observed for Eucalyptus caliginosa on the Table-lands of NSW (Graham et al 2004).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

Soil and vegetation response to thinning White Cypress Pine (Callitris glaucophylla) on the North Western Slopes of New South Wales, Australia

McHenry

Wilson

Lemon³

et al. 2006

Plant Soil

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Dense White Cypress Pine (Callitris glaucophylla J. Thompson and L.A.S. Johnson) regrowth occurs frequently across previously cleared landscapes in New South Wales (NSW), and is thought to adversely affect agricultural production and to cause land degradation. The NSW Native Vegetation Act (2003) requires that management of native vegetation including pre-1990 regrowth must 'improve or maintain' site condition, yet there is currently limited information regarding techniques for the optimum management of C. glaucophylla in this regard. We conducted a preliminary study to examine floristic composition, soil condition (to 50 cm) and carbon storage under 'Dense' (dense regrowth), 'Thinned' (dense regrowth thinned 2000/2001) and 'Un-colonised' (pasture not yet recolonised by C. glaucophylla) plots on private lands in NSW. Reduced tree density from thinning resulted in increased biomass of the remaining individual trees. Un-colonised plots had significantly more groundcover than thinned plots, which had significantly more groundcover than dense plots. Differences in plant diversity however, were explained by site factors rather than land use. Soils in the dense plots were the most acid but soil pH was significantly higher in thinned plots and pH was highest in soil of the un-colonised plots. Mean values for carbon, nitrogen, sulphur and extractable phosphorus varied among sites, although each were significantly more abundant in the mineral soil of dense and thinned plots compared with un-colonised plots, suggesting that thinning had had a minimal effect on the soil parameters assessed. Accounting for all site components, site carbon storage was significantly higher in dense and thinned plots compared with un-colonised plots due to elevated levels of soil and litter carbon as well as the presence of trees. The results indicate that thinning dense C. glaucophylla can maintain and (by some measures) improve site condition. However, given the variability in some of the parameters assessed, further study across a wider range of soil types and rainfall gradients is proposed.

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Scattered paddock trees, litter chemistry, and surface soil properties in pastures of the New England Tablelands, New South Wales

Cited by 31 publications

References 25 publications

Validation of Farmer Perceived Soil Fertility Improving Tree Species in Agropastoral Communities of Bushenyi District

Validation of Farmer Perceived Soil Fertility Improving Tree Species in Agropastoral Communities of Bushenyi District

Clumped and isolated trees influence soil nutrient levels in an Australian temperate box woodland

Soil and vegetation response to thinning White Cypress Pine (Callitris glaucophylla) on the North Western Slopes of New South Wales, Australia

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