Soil Quality for Sustainable Land Management

Soil quality concepts are commonly wont to evaluate sustainable land management in agroecosystems. The objectives of this review were to trace the importance of soil organic matter (SOM) in Canadian sustainable land management studies and illustrate the role of SOM and aggregation in sustaining soil functions. Canadian studies on soil quality were initiated within the early 1980s and showed that loss of SOM and soil aggregate stability were standard features of nonsustainable land use. Subsequent studies have evaluated SOM quality using the subsequent logical sequence: soil purpose and performance , processes, properties and indicators, and methodology. Limiting steps during this soil quality framework are the questions of critical limits and standardization for soil properties. at the present , critical limits for SOM are selected employing a commonly accepted reference value or supported empirically derived relations between SOM and a selected soil process or function (e.g., soil fertility, productivity, or erodibility). Organic matter fractions (e.g., macro-organic matter, light fraction, microbial biomass, and mineralizable C) describe the standard of SOM. [1]

Soil quality: an indicator of sustainable land management?

Soil quality appears to be a perfect indicator of sustainable land management. Soil is that the foundation for nearly all land uses. Soil quality, by definition, reflects the capacity to sustain plant and animal productivity, maintain or enhance water and air quality, and promote plant and animal health. By reflecting the essential capacity of the soil to function, it integrates across many potential uses. Nonetheless, few land managers have adopted soil quality as an indicator of sustainable land management. There are variety of constraints to adoption. Most might be overcome through a concerted effort by the research community. Specifically, we’d like to deal with the subsequent issues: (1) demonstrate causal relationships between soil quality and ecosystem functions, including biodiversity conservation, biomass production and conservation of soil and water resources. True calibration of soil quality requires quite merely comparing values across management systems; (2) increase the facility of soil quality indicators to predict response to disturbance. [2]

Insights and Applications Local Soil Knowledge: A Tool for Sustainable Land Management

Local soil knowledge is a crucial source of data when designing sustain able land management strategies. Local people’s insights, perceptions, and manage ment strategies are often attuned to local soil conditions and may offer guidance for realistic land management. this text reviews the prevailing literature on local soil knowledge and suggests ways it are often used more effectively in sustainable land management. I discuss three genres of local soil knowledge writing: the ethno graphical literature, nomenclature descriptions, and more utilitarian writing. I then offer suggestions for future local soil knowledge studies, broadening local soil know ledge to incorporate the knowledge of physical processes, linking soil knowledge with socioeconomic context, and integrating local with knowledge domain through the utilization of participatory methodologies for future research. [3]

Land-change dynamics and ecosystem service trends across the central high-Andean Puna

Mountain landscapes provide multiple ecosystem services that are continually susceptible to land-change. These complex variations over space and time got to be clustered and explained to develop efficient and sustainable land management processes. We completed a spatiotemporal analysis that describes how different patterns of 6 land-change dynamics impact on the availability of seven ecosystem services over a period of 13 years and across 25 provinces within the central high-Andean Puna of Peru. The appraisal describes: (1) how clusters of land-change dynamics are linked to ecosystem service bundles; (2) which are the dominant land-change dynamics that influence changes in ecosystem service bundles and (3) how multiple ecosystem service provision and relationships vary over space and time. [4]

Factors Affecting Uptake of Organic Soil Amendment Techniques to Sustainable Land Management: Case of Integrated Land Use Design Techniques in Schools and Communal Farming Communities

The study was administered in schools teaching organic farming technologies in Zimbabwe. The research sought to seek out out effective implementation strategies of farming innovations through schools community integration. the chosen schools consisted of 5 primary schools and three secondary schools. Structured questionnaires were administered to 55 grade school pupils and teachers, 34 lyceum pupils and teachers and 40 small holder farmers within the varsity environs. people that participated within the study had been trained in organic soil amendment techniques. it had been acknowledged that schools and surrounding farmers were trying out new organic soil amendment techniques, with the first school sector practicing more of the new technologies than the secondary schools and therefore the communal farming sector. [5]

Reference

[1] Carter, M.R., 2002. Soil quality for sustainable land management. Agronomy journal, 94(1), (Web Link)

[2] Herrick, J.E., 2000. Soil quality: an indicator of sustainable land management?. Applied soil ecology, 15(1), (Web Link)

[3] Winklerprins, A.M., 1999. Insights and applications local soil knowledge: a tool for sustainable land management. Society & Natural Resources, 12(2), (Web Link)

[4] Land-change dynamics and ecosystem service trends across the central high-Andean Puna
Santiago Madrigal-Martínez & José Luis Miralles i García
Scientific Reports volume 9, (Web Link)

[5] Gadzirayi, C. T., Chongani, J. and Mafuse, N. (2017) “Factors Affecting Uptake of Organic Soil Amendment Techniques to Sustainable Land Management: Case of Integrated Land Use Design Techniques in Schools and Communal Farming Communities”, Asian Journal of Agricultural Extension, Economics & Sociology, 19(4), (Web Link)