The beneficial effects of two tree species on soil properties in a semi-arid savanna rangeland in Botswana

2003 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.O. Aweto ◽  
O. Dikinya
Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 1477
Author(s):  
Antonio Marín-Martínez ◽  
Alberto Sanz-Cobeña ◽  
Mª Angeles Bustamante ◽  
Enrique Agulló ◽  
Concepción Paredes

In semi-arid vineyard agroecosystems, highly vulnerable in the context of climate change, the soil organic matter (OM) content is crucial to the improvement of soil fertility and grape productivity. The impact of OM, from compost and animal manure, on soil properties (e.g., pH, oxidisable organic C, organic N, NH4+-N and NO3−-N), grape yield and direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emission in vineyards was assessed. For this purpose, two wine grape varieties were chosen and managed differently: with a rain-fed non-trellising vineyard of Monastrell, a drip-irrigated trellising vineyard of Monastrell and a drip-irrigated trellising vineyard of Cabernet Sauvignon. The studied fertiliser treatments were without organic amendments (C), sheep/goat manure (SGM) and distillery organic waste compost (DC). The SGM and DC treatments were applied at a rate of 4600 kg ha−1 (fresh weight, FW) and 5000 kg ha−1 FW, respectively. The use of organic amendments improved soil fertility and grape yield, especially in the drip-irrigated trellising vineyards. Increased CO2 emissions were coincident with higher grape yields and manure application (maximum CO2 emissions = 1518 mg C-CO2 m−2 d−1). In contrast, N2O emissions, mainly produced through nitrification, were decreased in the plots showing higher grape production (minimum N2O emissions = −0.090 mg N2O-N m−2 d−1). In all plots, the CH4 fluxes were negative during most of the experiment (−1.073−0.403 mg CH4-C m−2 d−1), indicating that these ecosystems can represent a significant sink for atmospheric CH4. According to our results, the optimal vineyard management, considering soil properties, yield and GHG mitigation together, was the use of compost in a drip-irrigated trellising vineyard with the grape variety Monastrell.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 1359
Author(s):  
Elisa Bona ◽  
Nadia Massa ◽  
Omrane Toumatia ◽  
Giorgia Novello ◽  
Patrizia Cesaro ◽  
...  

Algeria is the largest country in Africa characterized by semi-arid and arid sites, located in the North, and hypersaline zones in the center and South of the country. Several autochthonous plants are well known as medicinal plants, having in common tolerance to aridity, drought and salinity. In their natural environment, they live with a great amount of microbial species that altogether are indicated as plant microbiota, while the plants are now viewed as a “holobiont”. In this work, the microbiota of the soil associated to the roots of fourteen economically relevant autochthonous plants from Algeria have been characterized by an innovative metagenomic approach with a dual purpose: (i) to deepen the knowledge of the arid and semi-arid environment and (ii) to characterize the composition of bacterial communities associated with indigenous plants with a strong economic/commercial interest, in order to make possible the improvement of their cultivation. The results presented in this work highlighted specific signatures which are mainly determined by climatic zone and soil properties more than by the plant species.


2021 ◽  
Vol 161 ◽  
pp. 106158
Author(s):  
Misagh Parhizkar ◽  
Mahmood Shabanpour ◽  
Isabel Miralles ◽  
Artemio Cerdà ◽  
Nobuaki Tanaka ◽  
...  

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 625
Author(s):  
Meghdad Jourgholami ◽  
Azadeh Khoramizadeh ◽  
Angela Lo Monaco ◽  
Rachele Venanzi ◽  
Francesco Latterini ◽  
...  

Engineering applications can be used to mitigate the adverse effects of soil compaction and amend compacted soils. Previous literature has highlighted the beneficial effects of interventions such as litter mulching and incorporation on skid trails. However, little is known about the effectiveness of these alternatives in restoring forest soil quality after forest logging. The objective of this study was to properly elucidate the effects of the above mentioned soil protection methods, litter incorporation before skidding (LI) and litter mulching after skidding (LM), on the recovery of compacted soil’s physico-chemical and biological properties on skid trails over a 2-year period in the Hyrcanian forests of Iran to identify the best option for restoration intervention. The litter used in both methods consisted of dried leaves of the hornbeam and maple tree in three intensities of 3, 6, and 9 Mg ha−1. The results showed that the application of both methods (LI and LM) significantly improved the soil properties when compared to the untreated skid trail. Results showed that the recovery values of soil properties in the LI treatments were significantly higher than those of the LM. The recovery values of soil properties by 6 and 9 Mg ha−1 were significantly higher than those of 3 Mg ha−1, while the differences were not significant between 6 and 9 Mg ha−1. Our findings showed that soil properties were partially recovered (70–80%) over a 2-year period from treatment, compared to untreated, but the full recovery of soil properties required more time to return to the pre-harvest value. Overall, the results of this study demonstrated that the application of soil protection methods accelerates the process of recovering soil properties much faster than natural soil recovery, which can take more than 20 years in these forests.


2016 ◽  
Vol 218 ◽  
pp. 73-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ch. Srinivasarao ◽  
Sumanta Kundu ◽  
Arun K. Shanker ◽  
R. Prakash Naik ◽  
M. Vanaja ◽  
...  

2015 ◽  
Vol 166 (6) ◽  
pp. 380-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pascale Weber ◽  
Caroline Heiri ◽  
Mathieu Lévesque ◽  
Tanja Sanders ◽  
Volodymyr Trotsiuk ◽  
...  

Growth potential and climate sensitivity of tree species in the ecogram for the colline and submontane zone In forestry practice a large amount of empirical knowledge exists about the productivity of individual tree species in relation to site properties. However, so far, only few scientific studies have investigated the influence of soil properties on the growth potential of various tree species along gradients of soil water as well as nutrient availability. Thus, there is a research gap to estimate the productivity and climate sensitivity of tree species under climate change, especially regarding productive sites and forest ad-mixtures in the lower elevations. Using what we call a «growth ecogram», we demonstrate species- and site-specific patterns of mean annual basal area increment and mean sensitivity of ring width (strength of year-to-year variation) for Fagus sylvatica, Quercus spp., Fraxinus excelsior, Picea abies, Abies alba and Pinus sylvestris, based on tree-ring data from 508 (co-)dominant trees on 27 locations. For beech, annual basal area increment ( average 1957–2006) was significantly correlated with tree height of the dominant sampling trees and proved itself as a possible alternative for assessing site quality. The fact that dominant trees of the different tree species showed partly similar growth potential within the same ecotype indicates comparable growth limitation by site conditions. Mean sensitivity of ring width – a measure of climate sensitivity – had decreased for oak and ash, while it had increased in pine. Beech showed diverging reactions with increasing sensitivity at productive sites (as measured by the C:N ratio of the topsoil), suggesting an increasing limitation by climate at these sites. Hence, we derive an important role of soil properties in the response of forests to climate change at lower elevations, which should be taken into account when estimating future forest productivity.


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