IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v9y2017i8p1349-d106638.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effects of Different Land-Use Systems on Soil Aggregates: A Case Study of the Loess Plateau (Northern China)

Author

Listed:
  • Shahmir Ali Kalhoro

    (Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China
    Faculty of Agriculture, Lasbela University of Agriculture, Water and Marine Sciences, Uthal 90150, Pakistan)

  • Xuexuan Xu

    (Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China)

  • Wenyuan Chen

    (Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China)

  • Rui Hua

    (Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China)

  • Sajjad Raza

    (Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38040, Pakistan)

  • Kang Ding

    (Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China)

Abstract

Soil aggregate stability is an important indicator for controlling soil losses and can improve soil quality, particularly in an area such as the Loess Plateau. The objective of this study was to estimate the differences in soil aggregates across six different land-use systems (grassland, apple orchard, abandoned apple orchard, cropland maize, cropland wheat, and shrub-grassland). For this purpose, dry and wet sieving techniques were employed to assess aggregate content and aggregate stability. Higher percentages of water stable aggregates were observed in the abandoned apple orchard and shrub-grassland at 63% and 61%, respectively. The maximum dry aggregate stability (%) was recorded at 78% and 77% in both wheat cropland and common apple orchard, and the abandoned apple orchard was only 74%. Both mean weight diameters and geometric mean diameters of aggregate were recorded as higher in grassland, shrub-grassland, and the abandoned apple orchard, than the other land uses. The formation of soil aggregates and their stability were positively correlated with soil organic carbon content and root biomass of different plant communities. Higher amounts of soil organic carbon content were noted in the abandoned apple orchard, common apple orchard, and natural grassland at the 0–20 cm soil layer. The results of the correlation coefficient showed a positive significant correlation between the mean weight diameter, geometric diameter, root biomass, and soil organic carbon content. Conclusively, the type of land use affected the soil aggregation and distribution of size fractions; the small fractions of the aggregates formed large fractions by combining with fresh organic matter, and increased soil organic carbon concentrations were closely linked with the formation of macro-aggregates. Thus, converting slope farmland to forestland and grassland could improve water-stable aggregate and reduce soil disturbances in areas (like the Loess Plateau) with the highest erosion risk.

Suggested Citation

  • Shahmir Ali Kalhoro & Xuexuan Xu & Wenyuan Chen & Rui Hua & Sajjad Raza & Kang Ding, 2017. "Effects of Different Land-Use Systems on Soil Aggregates: A Case Study of the Loess Plateau (Northern China)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-16, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:8:p:1349-:d:106638
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/8/1349/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/8/1349/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael W. I. Schmidt & Margaret S. Torn & Samuel Abiven & Thorsten Dittmar & Georg Guggenberger & Ivan A. Janssens & Markus Kleber & Ingrid Kögel-Knabner & Johannes Lehmann & David A. C. Manning & Pa, 2011. "Persistence of soil organic matter as an ecosystem property," Nature, Nature, vol. 478(7367), pages 49-56, October.
    2. Mariana Regina Durigan & Maurício Roberto Cherubin & Plínio Barbosa De Camargo & Joice Nunes Ferreira & Erika Berenguer & Toby Alan Gardner & Jos Barlow & Carlos Tadeu dos Santos Dias & Diana Signor &, 2017. "Soil Organic Matter Responses to Anthropogenic Forest Disturbance and Land Use Change in the Eastern Brazilian Amazon," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-16, March.
    3. Jiguang Zhang & Guodong Bo & Zhongfeng Zhang & Fanyu Kong & Yi Wang & Guoming Shen, 2016. "Effects of Straw Incorporation on Soil Nutrients, Enzymes, and Aggregate Stability in Tobacco Fields of China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(8), pages 1-12, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ádám Rieder & Balázs Madarász & Judit Alexandra Szabó & Dóra Zacháry & Anna Vancsik & Marianna Ringer & Zoltán Szalai & Gergely Jakab, 2018. "Soil Organic Matter Alteration Velocity due to Land-Use Change: A Case Study under Conservation Agriculture," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-11, March.
    2. Jiří Holátko & Ondřej Holubík & Tereza Hammerschmiedt & Jan Vopravil & Antonín Kintl & Martin Brtnický, 2022. "Afforestation of agricultural land affects soil structural stability and related preconditions to resist drought," Journal of Forest Science, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 68(12), pages 496-508.
    3. Michal Apollo & Viacheslav Andreychouk & Suman S. Bhattarai, 2018. "Short-Term Impacts of Livestock Grazing on Vegetation and Track Formation in a High Mountain Environment: A Case Study from the Himalayan Miyar Valley (India)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-17, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Arnoldas Jurys & Dalia Feizienė & Mykola Kochiieru & Renata Žvirdauskienė & Virginijus Feiza, 2023. "Aftereffect of Seven Years of Straw Handling on Soil Sustainability and Vitality," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-18, August.
    2. Akinpelu, O.A. & Olaleye, O. & Fagbola, O., 2023. "The Soil Organic Matter Decomposers: A Bibliometric Analysis," International Journal of Agriculture and Environmental Research, Malwa International Journals Publication, vol. 9(4), August.
    3. Shamal Shasang Kumar & Owais Ali Wani & Binesh Prasad & Amena Banuve & Penaia Mua & Ami Chand Sharma & Shalendra Prasad & Abdul Raouf Malik & Salah El-Hendawy & Mohamed A. Mattar, 2024. "Effects of Mulching on Soil Properties and Yam Production in Tropical Region," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(17), pages 1-25, September.
    4. Gang Zhang & Dejian Wang & Yuanchun Yu, 2020. "Investigation into the Effects of Straw Retention and Nitrogen Reduction on CH 4 and N 2 O Emissions from Paddy Fields in the Lower Yangtze River Region, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-18, February.
    5. Kristof Dorau & Chris Bamminger & Daniel Koch & Tim Mansfeldt, 2022. "Evidences of soil warming from long-term trends (1951–2018) in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 170(1), pages 1-13, January.
    6. Guoai Li & Xuxu Chai & Zheng Shi & Honghua Ruan, 2023. "Interactive Effects Determine Radiocarbon Abundance in Soil Fractions of Global Biomes," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-17, May.
    7. Isabel Teichmann, 2015. "An Economic Assessment of Soil Carbon Sequestration with Biochar in Germany," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1476, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    8. Shaw, C.H. & Hilger, A.B. & Metsaranta, J. & Kurz, W.A. & Russo, G. & Eichel, F. & Stinson, G. & Smyth, C. & Filiatrault, M., 2014. "Evaluation of simulated estimates of forest ecosystem carbon stocks using ground plot data from Canada's National Forest Inventory," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 272(C), pages 323-347.
    9. Miriam Githongo & Lucy Ngatia & Milka Kiboi & Anne Muriuki & Andreas Fliessbach & Collins Musafiri & Riqiang Fu & Felix Ngetich, 2023. "The Structural Quality of Soil Organic Matter under Selected Soil Fertility Management Practices in the Central Highlands of Kenya," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-13, April.
    10. Xue Hu & Hongyi Liu & Chengyu Xu & Xiaomin Huang & Min Jiang & Hengyang Zhuang & Lifen Huang, 2021. "Effect of Digestate and Straw Combined Application on Maintaining Rice Production and Paddy Environment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-12, May.
    11. Miquelajauregui, Yosune & Cumming, Steven G. & Gauthier, Sylvie, 2019. "Short-term responses of boreal carbon stocks to climate change: A simulation study of black spruce forests," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 409(C), pages 1-1.
    12. Rafaella Campos & Gabrielle Ferreira Pires & Marcos Heil Costa, 2020. "Soil Carbon Sequestration in Rainfed and Irrigated Production Systems in a New Brazilian Agricultural Frontier," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-14, May.
    13. Damien Finn & Kerrilyn Catton & Marijke Heenan & Peter M. Kopittke & Diane Ouwerkerk & Athol V. Klieve & Ram C. Dalal, 2018. "Differential Gene Expression in the Model Actinomycete Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) Supports Nitrogen Mining Dependent on the Plant Carbon to Nitrogen Ratio," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 8(12), pages 1-10, December.
    14. Yuxuan Li & Siyue Feng & Lin Wang & Chencen Lei & Hongbo Peng & Xinhua He & Dandan Zhou & Fangfang Li, 2024. "Improvement and Stability of Soil Organic Carbon: The Effect of Earthworm Mucus Organo-Mineral Associations with Montmorillonite and Hematite," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-13, June.
    15. Stavros D Veresoglou & Barry Thornton & George Menexes & Andreas P Mamolos & Demetrios S Veresoglou, 2012. "Soil Fertilization Leads to a Decline in Between-Samples Variability of Microbial Community δ13C Profiles in a Grassland Fertilization Experiment," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(9), pages 1-8, September.
    16. Ping, Jiaye & Zhou, Jian & Huang, Kun & Sun, Xiaoying & Sun, Huanfa & Xia, Jianyang, 2021. "Modeling the typhoon disturbance effect on ecosystem carbon storage dynamics in a subtropical forest of China's coastal region," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 455(C).
    17. Timothy E. Crews & Brian E. Rumsey, 2017. "What Agriculture Can Learn from Native Ecosystems in Building Soil Organic Matter: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-18, April.
    18. Jean-Sébastien Landry & Navin Ramankutty, 2015. "Carbon Cycling, Climate Regulation, and Disturbances in Canadian Forests: Scientific Principles for Management," Land, MDPI, vol. 4(1), pages 1-36, January.
    19. Jiuming Zhang & Jiahui Yuan & Yingxue Zhu & Enjun Kuang & Jiaye Han & Yanxiang Shi & Fengqin Chi & Dan Wei & Jie Liu, 2024. "Transformation and Sequestration of Total Organic Carbon in Black Soil under Different Fertilization Regimes with Straw Carbon Inputs," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-11, June.
    20. Tipping, E. & Rowe, E.C. & Evans, C.D. & Mills, R.T.E. & Emmett, B.A. & Chaplow, J.S. & Hall, J.R., 2012. "N14C: A plant–soil nitrogen and carbon cycling model to simulate terrestrial ecosystem responses to atmospheric nitrogen deposition," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 247(C), pages 11-26.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:8:p:1349-:d:106638. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.