Restoring Soil Quality to Mitigate Soil Degradation
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TLDR
In this paper, the authors proposed a strategy to minimize soil erosion, create positive organic carbon (SOC) and N budgets, enhance activity and species diversity of soil biota (micro, meso, and macro), and improve structural stability and pore geometry.Abstract:
Feeding the world population, 7.3 billion in 2015 and projected to increase to 9.5 billion by 2050, necessitates an increase in agricultural production of ~70% between 2005 and 2050. Soil degradation, characterized by decline in quality and decrease in ecosystem goods and services, is a major constraint to achieving the required increase in agricultural production. Soil is a non-renewable resource on human time scales with its vulnerability to degradation depending on complex interactions between processes, factors and causes occurring at a range of spatial and temporal scales. Among the major soil degradation processes are accelerated erosion, depletion of the soil organic carbon (SOC) pool and loss in biodiversity, loss of soil fertility and elemental imbalance, acidification and salinization. Soil degradation trends can be reversed by conversion to a restorative land use and adoption of recommended management practices. The strategy is to minimize soil erosion, create positive SOC and N budgets, enhance activity and species diversity of soil biota (micro, meso, and macro), and improve structural stability and pore geometry. Improving soil quality (i.e., increasing SOC pool, improving soil structure, enhancing soil fertility) can reduce risks of soil degradation (physical, chemical, biological and ecological) while improving the environment. Increasing the SOC pool to above the critical level (10 to 15 g/kg) is essential to set-in-motion the restorative trends. Site-specific techniques of restoring soil quality include conservation agriculture, integrated nutrient management, continuous vegetative cover such as residue mulch and cover cropping, and controlled grazing at appropriate stocking rates. The strategy is to produce “more from less” by reducing losses and increasing soil, water, and nutrient use efficiency.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Impact of Chemical Fertilizers on Diversity and Abundance of Soil-Litter Arthropod Communities in Coffee and Banana Plantations in Southern Rwanda
Journal ArticleDOI
Sequential Extraction of 239+240Pu and the Vertical Distribution of 239+240Pu, 137Cs, and Heavy Metals in Chang-Bai Mountains’ Grassland Soil
Yongjing Guan,Shenzhen Wang,Qiaoyan Jing,Deyu Wang,Huijuan Wang,Chun-Chang Huang,Wu Chen,Yuxin Hua,Yisu Hu,Yining Guo,Binglan Yao,Heng Li,He Lu,Zhiyong Liu +13 more
TL;DR: Li et al. as mentioned in this paper collected three grassland soil cores from the Lao-Ye-Ling Mountain, which is a branch of the Chang-Bai Mountains, to establish a 239+240Pu, 137Cs, and heavy metal reference soil site in Northeast China.
Book ChapterDOI
Assessment and Management of Soil and Water Erosion in Dryland Ecosystem
TL;DR: The concept of sustainable land management (SLM) is widely being promoted in response to land degradation and desertification in these areas as mentioned in this paper , and proper adoption of SLM practices is critical for protecting the soil and other natural resources besides maintaining several ecosystem services that are essential for human well-being.
Journal ArticleDOI
Estimation of annual erosion in six soil series of the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta Nigeria using Rusle in Map Algebra
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors evaluate the rate and locations of soil erosion in the study area in order to develop erosion control intervention program using standard methods, and show that overall soil erosion ranges from 0 to 167.8 tons per hectare per annum.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Soil carbon sequestration impacts on global climate change and food security.
TL;DR: In this article, the carbon sink capacity of the world’s agricultural and degraded soils is 50 to 66% of the historic carbon loss of 42 to 78 gigatons of carbon.
Journal ArticleDOI
Organic matter and water-stable aggregates in soils
Judith. Tisdall,J.M. Oades +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the effectiveness of various binding agents at different stages in the structural organization of aggregates is described and forms the basis of a model which illustrates the architecture of an aggregate.
Journal ArticleDOI
Environmental and Economic Costs of Soil Erosion and Conservation Benefits
David Pimentel,Celia A. Harvey,P. Resosudarmo,K. Sinclair,D. Kurz,M. McNair,S. Crist,L. Shpritz,L. Fitton,R. Saffouri,R. Blair +10 more
TL;DR: With the addition of a quarter of a million people each day, the world population's food demand is increasing at a time when per capita food productivity is beginning to decline.
Journal ArticleDOI
Soil Quality: A Concept, Definition, and Framework for Evaluation (A Guest Editorial)
Douglas L. Karlen,Maurice J. Mausbach,John W. Doran,R. G. Cline,R. F. Harris,Gerald E. Schuman +5 more
TL;DR: The Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) Ad Hoc Committee on Soil Quality (S-581) as mentioned in this paper defined soil quality as "the capacity (of soil) to function".
Journal ArticleDOI
持続可能性(Sustainability)の要件
TL;DR: The Bachelor of Science in Sustainability as discussed by the authors provides the broad fundamental knowledge, skills and competencies needed to drive sustainable outcomes that address today's urgent environmental, economic and social challenges.
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