Abstract
A study was carried out to assess soil erosion and associated losses on abandoned cassava farmland, 3-year, 10-year and 5-year fallows in a part of the rainforest zone of southern Nigeria. The study showed that the 5- year fallow yielded the most losses as a result of its scanty herbaceous cover and existence of canopy gaps followed by the abandoned cassava farmland, while the 10-year experienced the lowest losses in runoff and sediment. Runoff loss (F = 16.089; p<0.05) and sediment loss (F = 6.355, p<0.05) varied significantly among the treatments. The study revealed erosional losses occurred in all plots and that fallows with sparse herbaceous cover were less effective in suppressing soil erosion. To reduce unproductive loss of rich topsoil, farmers were encouraged to maintain adequate herbaceous cover during cropping to speed up ecological restoration after land abandonment.Keywords: Fallow vegetation, Soil erosion, Erosional losses
Highlights
All over the world, soil erosion is a serious environmental problem with a degrading effect especially on land which is vital resource for agricultural production (Iwara, 2014)
The erosive force of soil erosion is largely caused by rainfall; as such, geomorphologists have used several attributes of rainfall such as kinetic energy, frequency of fall, drop size, intensity of rainfall and rainfall duration among others to study soil erosion (Daura, 1995; Ezemonye and Emeribe, 2012) and reference was made to vegetation cover alone neglecting other vegetation components such as ground cover, girth, basal cover, litter depth, herbaceous composition among others that could have significant effect on soil erosion
Analysis of Variance result indicates that sand (F = 0.758, p>0.05), silt (F = 1.223, p>0.05) and clay (F = 0.420, p>0.05) contents do not vary among the plots
Summary
Soil erosion is a serious environmental problem with a degrading effect especially on land which is vital resource for agricultural production (Iwara, 2014). Vegetation composition and structure in different successional stages carry out essential roles in shielding the soil from the direct impact of rainwater, regulate soil erosion processes, suppress the movement of surface runoff and allow rainwater to infiltrate the soil (Iwara, 2018; Vasquez and Sheley, 2018). It performs a vital function of enhancing and maintaining soil nutrients thereby preserving soil structure. Information on runoff and sediment loss during the process of nutrient restoration on abandoned farmlands of different fallow ages is poorly documented in the literature of forest ecology. The specific objectives were to determine the amounts of runoff and sediment loss using runoff plots
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