Abstract
Land degradation and unsustainable management practices have resulted in soil organic carbon and nutrient depletion, hydrological instability, reduced primary productivity, and low biological diversity. In response to these problems, communities in the Central Rift Valley area of Ethiopia have started to establish exclosures about three decades ago. This study has investigated the variations in selected soil properties (soil textural fractions, bulk density, soil moisture content, pH (H2O) and soil organic carbon content) under two land use types: open grazing land and exclosures in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia. Results showed that soil organic carbon varied significantly with land use types (p = 0.040), soil depths (p = 0.010) and the interaction effect (p = 0.039). The soil moisture content showed significant variation (p < 0.0001) only with soil depth. Exclosure land use type has shown an improvement in soil organic carbon against the findings by Mekuria et al. [International Conference on Advances in Agricultural, Biological & Environmental Sciences (AABES-2014), Dubai (UAE) 2014]. Thus, highly degraded open grazing should be designated as exclosure land management zone to restore and rehabilitate severely degraded landscape in the fragile environment of the rift valley area of Ethiopia.
Highlights
Land degradation and unsustainable management practices have resulted in soil organic carbon and nutrient depletion, hydrological instability, reduced primary productivity, and low biological diversity
In the rift valley of Ethiopia, owing the rapid woodland conversion for expansion of agricultural and grazing lands there is a sharp decline of soil fertility due to low level of organic residues returned to the soil system and thereby high erosion processes
Land degradation continues unabated resulting in loss of soil and soil organic carbon and deterioration the soil quality and poor agricultural performances
Summary
Land degradation and unsustainable management practices have resulted in soil organic carbon and nutrient depletion, hydrological instability, reduced primary productivity, and low biological diversity. In response to these problems, communities in the Central Rift Valley area of Ethiopia have started to establish exclosures about three decades ago. Sustaining soil and environmental features are the most effective methods for ensuring sufficient food supply to support life, reduce soil degradation and improve soil health (Soares et al 2005) They play a role in the global carbon cycle and will have a positive impact if soils are managed. Communal grazing lands in northern Ethiopia have shown lower total soil nitrogen (N), available phosphorus (P), and cation exchange capacity compared to exclosures (Mekuria et al 2011)
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