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Fluorescence properties of humic substances transformed in ectohumus horizons of Podzols affected by alkaline fly‐ash Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-03-02 Lilla Mielnik; Jerzy Weber; Marek Podlasiński; Andrzej Kocowicz
Lignite burning is still the main source of energy in many countries, generating huge amounts of alkaline residues deposited in dumping sites, which affects the surrounding environment. There are only a few publications dealing with the effects on pH changes of surface horizons, but there are no reports on the impact on other soil properties. The aim of this paper was to characterize the changes occurring
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Impacts of nitrogen enrichment on vegetation growth dynamics are regulated by grassland degradation status Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-01-26 Xiaotian Xu; Guozheng Hu; Xu Liu; Shaowei Lu; Shaoning Li; Na Zhao
Plant phenological responses under global climate change is a hot topic in current ecological research. However, it also has comprehensive interactions with other anthropogenic environmental factors including nitrogen (N) enrichment owing to atmospheric deposition and fertilization, and grassland degradation, which attracts less attention. Continuous photographic techniques enabled us to monitor the
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Land system transformations govern the trophic status of an urban wetland ecosystem: Perspectives from remote sensing and water quality analysis Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-02-26 Shahid Ahmad Dar; Irfan Rashid; Sami Ullah Bhat
Globally, urban wetlands are facing immense pressure of land use land cover changes (LULCCs) and associated water quality degradation that is severely affecting the trophic status of these pristine ecosystems. This study analyzed water quality degradation resulting due to the land system changes in the vicinity of Khushalsar, an urban wetland, in Srinagar city from 1980‐2017. The analysis of satellite
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A long‐term no‐tillage system can increase enzymatic activity and maintain bacterial richness in paddy fields Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-01-25 Filipe Selau Carlos; Naihana Schaffer; Elio Marcolin; Rodrigo Schmitt Fernandes; Roberta Mariot; Michael Mazzurana; Luiz Fernando Wurdig Roesch; Bruno Levandoski; Flávio Anastácio de Oliveira Camargo
Soil management systems cause many changes in the microenvironment that directly affect activity and diversity of microorganisms. In lowlands, there is a gap in relation to the adoption of no‐tillage (zero‐tillage) and the impact it has on soil under cultivation of irrigated rice. This study, an in‐field experiment, evaluated the microbial enzymatic activity and diversity in an Entisol cultivated with
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Combining 137Cs, 210Pb and dendrochronology for improved reconstruction of erosion–sedimentation events in a loess gully system (southern Poland) Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-02-01 Ireneusz Malik; Grzegorz Poręba; Małgorzata Wistuba; Beata Woskowicz‐Ślęzak
Detailed knowledge on the past events of erosion and redeposition is necessary to assess the frequency and magnitude of soil degradation and to provide more complete data, among all, to calculate rainfall thresholds and to develop strategies for controlling erosion. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to obtain a more comprehensive and accurate reconstruction of erosion–sedimentation events in a gully
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Stand age rather than soil moisture gradient dominantly regulates the compromise between plant growth and water use of Eucalyptus urophylla in hilly South China Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-02-25 Lei Ouyang; Jin Wu; Ping Zhao; Liwei Zhu; Guangyan Ni
Large‐scale cultivation and short‐term rotation of Eucalyptus trees for economic reasons have led to excessive consumption of soil water, raising broader ecological and environmental concerns. Therefore, exploring the balance between water use and plant growth of Eucalyptus trees has become increasingly important but remains understudied. Here we hypothesized that stand age and soil moisture gradient
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Implementing Land Evaluation and Site Assessment (U.S. LESA System) in Farmland Protection: A Case Study in Northeastern China Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-02-25 Fengkui Qian; Weiwen Wang; Qiubing Wang; Rattan Lal
Farmland evaluation has been a major topic in farmland protection research. Due to the lack of reasonable and scientific evaluation methods for farmland protection, the farmland quality and quantity are at high risk of degradation and destruction in China with rapid industrialization and urbanization. The Land Evaluation and Site Assessment (LESA) system has been successfully applied to protect important
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Effects of grazing control on ecosystem recovery, biological productivity gains and soil carbon sequestration in long term degraded loess farmlands in the Northern Negev, Israel Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-02-25 Stefan Leu; Michael Ben‐Eli; Amir Mor‐Mussery
High rainfall variability in drylands complicates comparison in time of productivity (ANPP) and soil fertility, and their changes due to altered management. In order to determine the extent, kinetics and mechanisms of soil and ecosystem recovery achievable in degraded loess plots in Southern Israel, ANPP and soil quality in three fenced plots were analyzed between 2011 and 2017 for experimental confirmation
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Inferring community assembly mechanisms from functional and phylogenetic diversity: The relative contribution of environmental filtering decreases along a sand desertification gradient in a desert steppe community Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-02-02 Xing Wang; Nai‐Ping Song; Xin‐Guo Yang; Lin Chen; Wen‐Jie Qu; Lei Wang
The stress‐dominance hypothesis (SDH) predicts that environmental filtering will dominate in harsh habitats, while limiting similarity is more important in favourable environments. Here, we test the generality of the SDH to disentangle the relative importance of these two ecological processes along a sand desertification gradient. Data were collected from randomly selected locations in a desert steppe
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Potential impact of plans and policies based on the principles of conservation agriculture on the control of soil erosion in Brazil Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-02-06 José Carlos Polidoro; Pedro Luiz de Freitas; Luís Carlos Hernani; Lúcia Helena Cunha dos Anjos; Renato de Aragão Ribeiro Rodrigues; Fernando Vieira Cesário; Aluísio Granato de Andrade; Jefé Leão Ribeiro
Land use and coverage surveys show that 30.5% of Brazil's territory was dedicated to the production of food, fibers, biofuels, and raw materials. This paper fills a gap and provides information to society and decision‐makers about the effectiveness of the adoption of conservation agriculture (CA) principles with zero tillage (ZT/CA) and integrated crop–livestock–forest (iCLF‐CA) systems as the central
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Effects of conservation agriculture on physicochemical soil health in 20 maize‐based trials in different agro‐ecological regions across Mexico Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-01-25 Simon Fonteyne; Juan Burgueño; Blanca Aide Albarrán Contreras; Enrique Andrio Enríquez; Luis Castillo Villaseñor; Fabian Enyanche Velázquez; Helios Escobedo Cruz; Juan Espidio Balbuena; Avelino Espinosa Solorio; Paul Garcia Meza; Fidelia González Galindo; Jessica González Regalado; Bram Govaerts; Juan Diego López Durante; Antonio López Ramírez; Miguel Angel Martínez Gamiño; Fermín Martínez Hernández;
Maize (Zea mays L.) is Mexico's primary staple food, but the Country's degrading soils and climate variability limit its productivity. Conservation agriculture (CA), a management technique that combines minimal tillage, permanent soil cover, and crop diversification, could reduce soil degradation and help improve soil health. There is however a lack of information about the effects of CA on soil health
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Interannual evolution of hydrosedimentary connectivity induced by forest cover change in a snow‐dominated mountainous catchment Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-02-01 Timothée Jautzy; Maxime Maltais; Thomas Buffin‐Bélanger
Hydrosedimentary connectivity is a key concept referring to the potential fluxes of water and sediment moving throughout a catchment. In forested catchments, these fluxes are prone to alterations caused by anthropogenic and natural disturbances. In this study, we modelled the interannual spatiotemporal evolution of hydrosedimentary connectivity influenced by forest cover change over the last four decades
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A process‐based soil erosion model ensemble to assess model uncertainty in climate change impact assessments Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-02-22 J.P.C. Eekhout; A. Millares‐Valenzuela; A. Martínez‐Salvador; R. García‐Lorenzo; P. Pérez‐Cutillas; C. Conesa‐García; J. de Vente
The impact of climate change on future soil loss is commonly assessed with soil erosion models, which are suggested to be an important source of uncertainty. Here we present a novel soil erosion model ensemble to assess model uncertainty in climate change impact assessments. The model en semble consisted of five continuous process‐based soil erosion models that run at a daily time step (i.e. DHSVM
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Particular microbial clades rather than total microbial diversity best predict the vertical profile variation in soil multifunctionality in desert ecosystems Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2020-12-28 Honglei Wang; Lianyan Bu; Jing Tian; Yingwei Hu; Fangqin Song; Chun Chen; Yinglong Zhang; Gehong Wei
In desert ecosystems, the desertification process is characterized by increasing attenuation of plant productivity and deterioration of soil habitats, leading to enhanced environmental stress gradients for soil microbiomes. Despite the significance of microbial communities for multifunctionality in terrestrial ecosystems, the feedback dynamics of microbiomes and their contributions to maintaining deep
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Quantification of the sources of soluble organic N (SON) from new litter or indigenous soil in a typical subtropical forest Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-02-02 Xianqing Ding; Yue Chang; Hongbo Hou; Peiqin Peng; Wenhua Xiang
Decomposition of forest litter plays a major role in nitrogen (N) dynamics in soil. However, the effect of new litter on indigenous soil N and its contribution to soil N in natural forest remains unknown. An in situ soil column experiment was conducted and 15N labelled litter was added to decompose for 14 months to examine the effect of litter retention on soil N dynamics in a typical subtropical forest
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Responses of soil gross nitrogen transformations to three vegetation restoration strategies in a subtropical karst region Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-02-02 Dejun Li; Li Wen; Kongcao Xiao; Tongqing Song; Kelin Wang
Investigation of soil internal nitrogen cycles is useful for unravelling the mechanisms responsible for soil nitrogen availability change. Here, gross nitrogen transformations were investigated in a subtropical karst area after 16 years of vegetation restoration. The experiment included four treatments with one control and three restoration strategies, that is: (i) maize‐soybean rotation field (CR
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Extracting check dam areas from high‐resolution imagery based on the integration of object‐based image analysis and deep learning Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-02-03 Sijin Li; Liyang Xiong; Guanghui Hu; Weiqin Dang; Guoan Tang; Josef Strobl
Soil loss is a global environmental problem that can intensively damage surrounding ecosystems. To control soil loss and secure agricultural activities, check dams are constructed for soil conservation. However, due to ineffective management, many check dams are abandoned and are highly prone to be damaged due to rainstorms. Such a phenomenon would cause more serious damage to surrounding environments
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The effectiveness of selected vegetation communities in regulating runoff and soil loss from regraded gully banks in the Mollisol region of Northeast China Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2020-12-18 Yue Yan; Xingyi Zhang; Jielin Liu; Jianye Li; Chao Ding; Zhi Qi; Qingsong Shen; Mingming Guo
The steep slopes of actively developed gullies are extremely sensitive to erosion in the Mollisol region of Northeast China; however, decision making on the optimal configuration for gully bank protection is under discussion. Here, five vegetation communities were established on regraded gully banks with bare slopes as the control to identify their controlling effects on flow hydraulics and soil erosion
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Grazing exclusion regulates bacterial community in highly degraded semiarid soils from the Brazilian Caatinga biome Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-01-22 Arthur Prudêncio de Araujo Pereira; Lara Andrade Lucena Lima; Walderly Melgaço Bezerra; Mirella Leite Pereira; Leonardo Ribeiro Oliveira Normando; Lucas William Mendes; Jose Gerardo Beserra de Oliveira; Ademir Sérgio Ferreira Araújo; Vânia Maria Maciel Melo
Grazing exclusion has been applied as a suitable strategy for soil conservation worldwide, mainly on semiarid soils. However, it is unclear how grazing exclusion reduces the negative effects of overgrazing on the microbial community in the Caatinga biome. In our study, we assessed the bacterial community under three different soil managements in a semiarid region of the Brazilian Caatinga biome, as
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A soil quality index for seven productive landscapes in the Andean‐Amazonian foothills of Ecuador Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-01-25 C. Bravo‐Medina; F. Goyes‐Vera; Y. Arteaga‐Crespo; Y. García‐Quintana; D. Changoluisa
Few studies have comprehensively evaluated the effect of changing land use on the soil quality in the Ecuadorian Amazon region that is subject to continued deforestation processes. This study evaluated the influence of different types of land use on soil quality using an integrated soil quality index (SQI) with a minimum set of indicators, based on 140 soil samples from 7 land use types, in seven productive
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Effect of Saline Soil and Amino Acids on Quality and Yield of Field Tartary Buckwheat Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-02-16 Jin‐Nan Song; Ya‐Qi Wang; Fa‐Liang Li; Yan‐Jiang Hu; Hong‐Bing Yang
Salt‐tolerant variety Chuanqiao No.1 and salt‐sensitive one Chuanqiao No.2 of Tartary buckwheat were used as experimental materials to study the effect of saline soil and amino acids on quality and yield of field Tartary buckwheat. The treatment concentration of Pro, Glu and Asp is 30, 60 and 40 μM, respectively. Three kinds of amino acids were sprayed twice on the leaves at seedling stage (30 days
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Dynamics of land‐use changes and its future trends using spatial analysis and CA‐Markov model – A case study with a special emphasis on aquaculture development in India Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-02-16 Marappan Jayanthi; Muthusamy Duraisamy; Selvasekar Thirumurthy; Muthusamy Samynathan; Moturi Muralidhar
Land resources utilized for aquaculture development have raised many environmental issues worldwide. But no detailed information is available about the land‐use changes due to aquaculture in comparison with other land use modifications. Hence, the land‐use changes and predictions have been explored in India's leading aquaculture region using multi temporal satellite images (1986–2016), spatial techniques
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Effects of residue mulching amounts on metabolic footprints based on production and respiration of soil nematodes in a long‐term no‐tillage system Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-02-16 Jingmei Luo; Xiaoke Zhang; Xinchang Kou; Hongtu Xie; Xuelian Bao; Mohammad Mahamood; Wenju Liang
Residue mulching has been adopted to improve soil organic carbon and to prevent soil erosion and degradation, which in turn promote the sustainable development of soil ecosystems. Nematode metabolic footprints provide information about the responses of nematodes to resources and also help in quantifying the contributions of nematodes to ecosystem functions and services. However, how production and
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Bacterial communities as indicators for soil health under continuous cropping system Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-02-16 Shi Guiying; Sun Hongqiang; Alejandro Calderón‐Urrea; Li Mouqiang; Yang Hongyu; Wang Wenzhu; Su Guoli
With growing global interest to improve soil quality and to adopt sustainable land management systems, there is an urgent need to find early indicators to monitor and manage sustainable soil health. Meta‐analyses provide useful information on microbial communities and community‐level molecular characteristics, which can be exploited as “biomarker” indicators of ecosystem processes for soil health evaluation
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Surface mines show little progress towards native species forest restoration following 35 years of passive management after initial reclamation Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-02-02 Thomas A. Ruggles; John A. Gerrath; Catherine T. Ruhm; Anne J. Jefferson; Chris A. Davis; Christopher B. Blackwood
Restoration techniques using passive management rely on natural plant community succession after reclamation to return disturbed areas to native ecosystems. This approach is often used in areas affected by mining activity, but effectiveness is variable and depends on the ability of native plants to establish in highly degraded soil and outcompete invasive species. We evaluated the restoration progress
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Review of crop‐specific tolerance limits to acidity, salinity and sodicity for seventeen cereal, pulse, and oilseed crops common to rainfed subtropical cropping systems Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-02-16 Kathryn L. Page; Yash P. Dang; Cristina Martinez; Ram C. Dalal; J. Bernhard Wehr; Peter M. Kopittke; Thomas G. Orton; Neal W. Menzies
Soil constraints limit crop water and nutrient extraction and lead to yield loss globally. In rainfed agriculture, the selection of crop species more likely to yield well under constrained conditions is an important management tool. However, information on the most appropriate crops is often difficult to access due to its publication in a wide range of disparate sources and the various measures of
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Monitoring ecosystem restoration of multiple surface coal mine sites in China via Landsat images on Google Earth Engine Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-02-12 Huihui Wang; Miaomiao Xie; Hanting Li; Qianqian Feng; Cui Zhang; Zhongke Bai
The restoration of surface mining sites is key to meeting global ecosystem restoration targets. With increased data accessibility and computing tool capabilities, it has become possible to expand restoration monitoring from single to multiple mine sites on a large scale. Based on the MODIS Global Disturbance Index (MGDI), this study proposed the mine landscape restoration index (MLRI), by coupling
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Plant community changes determine the vegetation and soil δ13C and δ15N enrichment in the degraded alpine grassland Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-02-09 Chengyang Li; Fei Peng; Chimin Lai; Xian Xue; Quangang You; Xiaojie Chen; Jie Liao; Shaoxiu Ma; Tao Wang
δ13C and δ15N are extensively used to understand the biogeochemical mechanisms that moderate ecosystem carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) processes. Little is known about the responses of δ13C and δ15N to alpine grassland degradation on the Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau (QTP), which prevents us from fully understanding degradation‐induced changes in C and N cycling there. We investigated the vegetation δ13C and
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A Threshold‐like Effect on the Interaction Between Hydrological Connectivity and Dominant Plant Population in Tidal Marsh Wetlands Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-02-09 Jiakai Liu; Ying Liu; Lumeng Xie; Shiqiang Zhao; Yili Dai; Zhenming Zhang
Tidal marsh wetlands in the Yellow River Delta provide valuable eco‐services to the local population and global ecology. However, this area is suffering from serious degradation under the stresses of social development and climate change. Hydrological connectivity, a new framework in hydrology and ecology, has been proposed as the main factor affecting the ecological processes in coastal wetlands;
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Mulching and technological interventions avoid land degradation in an intensive oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) production system Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-01-11 Kamireddy Manorama; Sanjib Kumar Behera; Kancherla Suresh; Musunuru Venkata Prasad; Ravi Kumar Mathur; Parasa Harinarayana
Soil quality characteristics are poorly understood after cultivating oil palm (OP) under irrigated conditions. OP grown under irrigated ecosystem on tropical soils is supplied with huge quantities of water and nutrients without considering changes in soil quality parameters. This may lead to the degradation of fertile lands. To understand the changes that take place in soil properties due to different
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Modern reactivations of a thick colluvial landslide reconstructed from dendrochronology: the example of the Xiakou landslide, China Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-01-25 Shibiao Bai; Ping Lu
In this study, we investigated two types of growth disturbance (GD) in tree‐ring sequences, namely, the abrupt growth reduction in annual tree‐ring width, and the formation of reaction wood, in tree stems growing on the thick colluvial Xiakou landslide in China. In total, 96 GDs were identified in 183 core samples that were acquired from the 81 trees on the Xiakou landslide, revealing nine reactivation
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Long‐term assessment of remediation treatments applied to an area affected by a mining spill Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-02-06 Rocío Pastor‐Jáuregui; Mario Paniagua‐López; Antonio Aguilar‐Garrido; Francisco Martín‐Peinado; Manuel Sierra‐Aragón
This study evaluates the effectiveness of remediation treatments in the long‐term (twenty years later) in one of the largest mine spills in the world, the Aznalcóllar accident. Soil recovery was carried out through the application of different rates of organic (compost and manure) and inorganic amendments (materials rich in iron oxides and calcium carbonate). Different amendment combinations were grouped
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Influence of nitrogen addition on the changes in nitrogen and carbon fractions in soil profiles of wheat fields Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-02-03 Lifang Wang; Jutao Sun; Juan Kang; Zhang Zhiyong; Zhouping Shangguan; Chenyang Wang
Increasing inputs of nitrogen (N) fertilizer greatly affect the functionality of farmland carbon (C) and N cycling. Soil contain various C and N fractions that have diverse chemical and physical characteristics, and they can be used as sensitive evaluation indicators for the change in soil C and N content; however, N application's effects on the deep soil layer N and C fractions of the North China
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Geotextile covering: potential technique for farmland salinization control Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-02-02 Zunqiu Xu; Xiaomin Mao; Adebayo J. Adeloye; Kejia Hu; Ying Zhu; Xiaowen Ma
This paper investigated fabric coverings on their ability to remove salt from saline soils. Soil columns filled with saline soil were saturated with salt water first, then covered with four kinds of fabric materials (i.e., nylon, cotton, geotextile (150 g/m2), and gauze). The soil columns were heated under infrared lights for 25 days. The micro‐structural characteristics of the fabric materials before
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Dynamics of ecosystem carbon stocks in a chronosequence of nitrogen‐fixing Nepalese alder (Alnus nepalensis D. Don.) forest stands in the central Himalaya Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-02-01 Rajendra Kr. Joshi; Satish Chandra Garkoti
Nitrogen‐fixing Nepalese alder (Alnus nepalensis D. Don.) is a rapidly‐growing pioneer tree species that often forms pure stands in areas affected by landslides, but also occurs mixed with other late‐successional species in the central Himalaya. In this study, we assessed the distribution of carbon in vegetation and soil in a chronosequence of A. nepalensis (3‐270 years old) forest stands and evaluated
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Response of soil organic carbon and soil health indicators to treated wastewater irrigation in bioenergy sorghum production on an arid soil Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-01-13 Vijayasatya N. Chaganti; Girisha Ganjegunte; Anil Somenahally; William L. Hargrove; April Ulery; Juan M. Enciso; Robert Flynn
Treated urban wastewater (WW) reuse for crop irrigation is seen as an way to mitigate prolonged drought effects and reduced freshwater (FW) availability for agriculture in arid west Texas. However, the impacts of WW on arid soil health are not clearly understood. This field study evaluated the effects of WW irrigation on soil health indicators including soil organic carbon (SOC), permanganate oxidizable
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Regional land degradation assessment for dryland environments: the Namaqualand Hardeveld bioregion of the Succulent Karoo biome as a case study Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-01-31 Wesley Drummond Bell; Michael Timm Hoffman; Vernon Visser
There is growing consensus that land degradation assessments should occur at local to regional scales, as global assessments fail to capture the complexity of land degradation processes, and how they manifest in different social‐ecological contexts. We have tested a statistically rigorous method for regional land degradation assessment in drylands, using fuzzy classification theory and techniques,
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Effects of land use changes on the nonlinear trends of net primary productivity in arid and semiarid areas, China Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-01-11 Huiyu Liu; Li Cao; Junhe Jia; Haibo Gong; Xiangzhen Qi; Xiaojuan Xu
Monitoring the nonlinear trend of net primary productivity (NPP) is essential for assessing the changes of ecosystems quality. Land use change caused by human activities is considered to be a key factor leading to vegetation changes. However, how land use change impacts the nonlinear trend of NPP has not yet been determined. This article analyzed the nonlinear trend of NPP in arid and semiarid areas
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The fate of rangelands: Revealing past and predicting future land‐cover transitions from 1985 to 2036 in the drylands of Central Iran Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2020-12-16 Bibizahra Mazloum; Saeid Pourmanafi; Alireza Soffianian; Abdolrassoul Salmanmahiny; Alexander V. Prishchepov
Land serves as a vital production resource, and therefore land planning plays an important role in sustainable land‐use design. Iran includes large areas of the world's drylands, many of which are used as rangelands, and where the population has increased by 60% from 1985 to 2016. Further population increase in Iran would probably require more land resources to be allocated for human needs. However
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Featured Front Cover Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-01-27 Xiong‐zhong Ma; Xin‐ping Wang
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Cover Image Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-01-27 Jiangtao Hong; Xin Xu; Bo Pang; Xingxing Ma; Xiaodan Wang
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Featured Back Cover Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-01-27 Yanchun Liu; Xiaojing Liu; Guoyong Li; Zhongling Yang; Shirong Liu
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Impact of different cropping systems on the land nutrient index, microbial diversity, and soil quality Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2020-12-15 Shiv Ram Singh; Poonam Yadav; Dinesh Singh; Lal Bahadur; Satyendra P. Singh; Ambreesh S. Yadav; Aradhana Mishra; Pushpendra P.S. Yadav; Sanjeev Kumar
In the last two decades, the productivity of the rice–wheat growing system (RWGS) in the upper Indo‐Gangetic Plains of India has come to a plateau, and, as a result, farmers are now shifting to other crop growing systems (cropping sysytems) to achieve a higher net productivity. Inclusion of other cropping systems in place of the rice–wheat system affects overall crop productivity; however, there is
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Impacts of climate change on wind erosion in southern Africa during 1991–2015 Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-01-24 Chaonan Zhao; Hanbing Zhang; Man Wang; Hong Jiang; Jian Peng; Yanglin Wang
Wind erosion is the main form of soil erosion in arid and semi‐arid areas. It leads to soil loss and land degradation, which aggravates ecosystem vulnerability and threatens regional sustainable development. Exploring wind erosion and associating driving factors can provide useful information to reduce soil wind erosion and solve corresponding environmental problems. Southern Africa is characterized
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Divergent processes and trends of desertification in Inner Mongolia and Mongolia Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2020-12-21 Xiaona Guo; Ruishan Chen; David S.G. Thomas; Qiang Li; Zilong Xia; Zhenzhen Pan
Desertification and the expansion of deserts are regarded as a major threat to human livelihoods and ecosystem services, as well as achieving Sustainable Development Goals. Humans have been recognized as significant agents in the expansion of desert‐like conditions, through the agency of desertification/land degradation, and through contributions to global climate change. Yet, how desertification changes
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Variations in the diversity of the soil microbial community and structure under various categories of degraded wetland in Sanjiang Plain, northeastern China Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2020-12-28 Yining Wu; Nan Xu; He Wang; Jinbo Li; Haixiu Zhong; Haiyan Dong; Zhaowen Zeng; Cheng Zong
Understanding the changes in microbial community composition in wetlands affected by different types of degradation can help enrich theoretical knowledge about wetland degradation. However, studies of the relative role of microorganisms under different types of degradation of wetlands are rare in wetland ecology. Because of agricultural development, a large volume of groundwater has been extracted
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Converting croplands to orchards changes soil microbial community composition and co‐occurrence patterns Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-01-02 Rui Wang; Ying Wang; Wei Zheng; Fangbin Hou; Yaxian Hu; Shengli Guo
Soil microorganisms are key to uncovering the mechanisms driving variation in soil biogeochemical processes associated with land‐use change. A large number of croplands have been converted to orchards on the Chinese Loess Plateau due to the increased economic benefits which result. However, the microbial community and their functional composition remain poorly understood. In this study, soil samples
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How does land use/cover influence gully head retreat rates? An in situ simulation experiment of rainfall and upstream inflow in the gullied loess region, China Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-01-20 Hongliang Kang; Wenlong Wang; Mingming Guo; Jianming Li; Shi Qianhua
Land use/cover plays a crucial role in gully head retreat (GHR). However, little is known about how land use/cover influences GHR rates. An in situ simulation experiment of rainfall and upstream inflow was conducted in a gullied loess region to investigate hydraulic erosion, mass movements and linear GHR processes under three types of land use/cover (bare land, grassland, and shrub‐grass land). The
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Sustaining the properties of black soil of Central India through crop residue management in the conservation‐agriculture based soybean‐wheat system Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-01-18 Devideen Yadav; A. K. Vishwakarma; N. K. Sharma; A. K. Biswas; P. R. Ojasvi; Dinesh Kumar; Anita Kumawat; Deepak Singh
The soybean‐wheat cropping system is the most dominant under the black soil of India which produces enormous amounts of nutrient‐rich residues. However, the soil has some production limitations, such as rapid drying, high bulk density, low nutrients, and microbial populations, leading to degradation. Optimal retention of soybean and wheat residues in black soil under the zero‐tillage system can improve
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Regional differences in the factors that affect vegetation cover in China Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2020-12-06 Zihao Ma; Jiahong Guo; Weiming Li; Zhaoyang Cai; Shixiong Cao
Decreasing vegetation cover leads to serious environmental problems, with negative impacts on human health and socioeconomic development. In recent years, these problems have seriously threatened human societies around the world. Although there have been many studies of urbanization's impacts on natural land cover, ecosystem health, and biodiversity, the effects of spatial variation of human factors
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Impacts of land‐use changes on soil fertility in Okomu Forest Reserve, Southern Nigeria Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2020-12-28 Glory O. Enaruvbe; Afolabi O. Osewole; Ozien P. Mamudu; Jesús Rodrigo‐Comino
This study assessed changes in soil properties and soil fertility resulting from land‐use conversion from rainforest to oil palm and rubber plantations in Okomu Forest Reserve, Southern Nigeria. We collected 315 soil samples at 0–15, 15–30, and 30–60 cm and analyzed soil physicochemical properties. In addition, soil fertility index (SFI) was computed using the analytical hierarchical process. Our results
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Soil seed bank characteristics in relation to different shrub species in semiarid regions Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2020-12-11 Mahbubeh Hadinezhad; Reza Erfanzadeh; Hassan Ghelichnia
Little information is available about the effects of different species of shrubs on the composition of the soil seed bank (SSB) in the semiarid regions. We determined the role of three dominant shrub species on SSB characteristics and evaluated their potential for their possible use in rangeland restoration projects. Fifteen sites, each containing three shrub species (Amygdalus scoparia, Daphne mezereum
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Long‐term Land use/cover changes reducing soil erosion in an ionic rare‐earth mineral area of southern China Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-01-14 Yuansheng Huang; Peng Li; Qiang An; Feijian Mao; Wuchen Zhai; Kaifeng Yu; Yiliang He
Ecological restoration projects, such as the Grain‐to‐Green Program (GTGP) and the Natural Forest Conservation Program (NFCP), have been implemented to recover vegetation cover since 1998. However, rapid urbanization also caused severe Land use/cover (LUC) changes in the Dong River Upstream Basin. Therefore, it is urgent to study the long‐term (1999‐2017) spatial‐temporal variation of LUC and soil
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The divergent impact of phenology changing on productivity of alpine grassland to different timing of drought on Tibetan Plateau Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-01-13 Guozheng Hu; Qingzhu Gao; Hasbagan Ganjurjav; Zixin Wang; Wenrong Luo; Hongbao Wu; Yu Li; Yulong Yan; Elise S. Gornish; Mark W. Schwartz; Yunfan Wan; Yue Li
Droughts are predicted to become more frequent and persist for longer periods in the future, especially in the Alpine region due to climate change. However, the association mechanism between plant productivity response to drought timing and phenology in the alpine grassland of the Tibetan Plateau is unclear. Here, we conducted manipulative drought experiments on early growing season drought (ED) and
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Post‐tsunami land degradation on a South Asian island: Implications for conservation priorities Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-01-11 Ayyam Velmurugan; Sirisha Adamala; Palanivel Swarnam
In recent decades, land degradation has accelerated due to an increase in unsustainable human activities. In a case study of the Andaman Islands, located in the South Asian region, changes in land degradation types, soil erosion and the effect of conservation measures for pre‐ (2000) and post‐tsunami periods (2006, 2019) were recorded using temporal remote sensing data (Landsat, Resourcesat, Cartosat)
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Plant community distribution induced by microtopography due to soil cracks developed on overgrazed alpine meadows on the Tibetan Plateau Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-01-11 Yujie Niu; Siwei Yang; Huimin Zhu; Jianwei Zhou; Bin Chu; Sujie Ma; Rui Hua; Ting Wang; Limin Hua
Microtopographic variation is a common feature of natural ecosystems. On the Tibetan Plateau, this variation includes soil cracking that influences the dynamics of soil nutrients and seed trapping, which further affect species distributions. Despite their importance, cracks in alpine meadows have rarely been reported, and the effects of cracks on soil properties and plant distribution are poorly understood
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Risk Assessment of Land Degradation (RALDE) Model Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-01-11 Masoud Masoudi; Maryam Vahedi; Artemi Cerdà
Land Degradation threatens the sustainability of the human societies due to the loss of resources, services and goods. To assess land degradation, models are useful and fruitful due to the complex and multidisciplinary processes acting. The present research attempts to design and develop a new model to assess land degradation based on biophysical and socioeconomic parameters to determine the land affected
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The response of soil microbial communities to soil erodibility depends on the plant and soil properties in semiarid regions Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2021-01-10 Min Zhang; Liguo Dong; Ying Wang; Xiaoxiong Bai; Zitong Ma; Xuan Yu; Zhong Zhao
Natural succession and afforestation are the two main restoration methods of degraded soil in semiarid and arid regions. Up to now, the soil microbial communities and their roles in soil erodibility have been unclear. This work aims to evaluate the effects of ecological restoration on the diversity and composition of soil microbial communities at depths of 0‐20 cm and the interaction with soil erodibility
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Combining finite mixture distribution, receptor model, and geostatistical simulation to evaluate heavy metals pollution in soils: Source and spatial pattern Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2020-12-28 Linyu Zhu; Lixia Zhang; Jining Wang; Jianshu Lv
Soil heavy metals (HMs) pollution has caused significant land degradation by affecting soil properties and functions. Clarifying sources and spatial distributions of soil HMs is necessary for the investigation of land degradation, but lacks accurate and efficient methods. This study proposes a combined method for improving source apportionment and spatial prediction of soil HMs. Finite mixture distribution
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Topsoil carbon‐selective transport in an eroding soil landscape with vegetation restoration Land Degrad. Dev. (IF 3.775) Pub Date : 2020-12-19 Jianye Li; Bojie Fu; Xiaoming Feng; Paul Dargusch; Jianbo Liu; Weiliang Chen; Jian Wang
Water erosion affects soil carbon (C) loss and C enrichment in deposited sediment. To better understand the dynamics of water erosion and topsoil C loss with sediments after vegetation restoration, we studied the sediment yield from each rainfall event over two growing seasons (June through October) in four runoff plots with different vegetation covers (Robinia pseudoacacia, Spiraea salicifolia, Stipa
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