Forest Soil Conservation Research Articles

Status of forest soil and necessity of sustainable soil conservation practices of Nepal

Forests are the fundamental natural resource regarded as the crucial aspect to uplift rural livelihood in Nepal. Forest, not only acquaints us with ecosystem services but also deals with carbon sequestration and nutrient cycling in forest soil, serving the most crucial part of human welfare. However, several human forces such as construction of roads, deforestation, shifting cultivation, overgrazing, and forest fires have decreased the organic matter content and contributed to landslides, erosion and sedimentation in forest. Frequent landslides, soil erosion on the landscape of Nepal is degrading the environment and soil, where 1.7mm of fertile topsoil is lost annually. Considering the fact, present study points to recognize the status of forest soil, its relationship and necessity of sustainable soil conservation practices. Secondary sources of data were used to assemble the related information. Hence, Involvement of different institutions, policy, law, local participation and community-based approach is significantly important in adopting forest soil conservation approaches. Different strategies of carbon sequestration should be maintained by increasing plant cover, enhancing microbes, utilizing agricultural inputs and slowing down the amount of soil disturbances. Likewise, strengthening different thematic areas of Forest Policy 2015 is indispensable in effective implementation of sub sectoral programmes. Forest management strategies incorporating the concepts of carbon storage, buffer strips, terracing, windbreaks, agroforestry, conservation tillage are the major areas highlighted through this paper for further researchers on preserving forest land.

Biodegradation potential of indigenous litter dwelling ligninolytic fungi on agricultural wastes

BackgroundThe present study was focused to study the efficiency of two indigenous litter dwelling ligninolytic fungi (such as Mucor circinelloides GL1 and Fusarium verticillioides GL5) in degrading the agricultural wastes (areca husk, coffee husk and paddy straw) through solid-state fermentation.ResultsAfter fermentation process, the lignocellulosic residues left over were evaluated for their physico-chemical studies and degradation pattern of cell wall constituents along with the activity of enzymes. In each substrate, the initial pH was found to change from near-neutral to acidic pH after fungal decomposition. Significantly increased loss of total organic matter and organic carbon content was observed in each substrate decomposed by the fungal strains selected. The total nitrogen, crude protein, total phosphorus and total potassium contents of the fungal decomposed substrates were significantly increased with the progress of time. The study indicated that the degradation patterns of lignin and holocellulose were more effective from 20 to 120 days after fungal inoculation with respect to their loss between the different harvesting intervals. During decomposition process, both the strains produced the ligninolytic enzymes [laccase, manganese peroxidase (MnP) and lignin peroxidase (LiP)] and carboxymethyl cellulase (CMCase) on each substrate with their remarkably varied activities with respect to different harvesting times.ConclusionsIn concern with the present environmental problems, the present study suggested that these potential ligninolytic fungi can be utilized successfully for the management of agricultural wastes and reuse of their residues in the forest soil conservation system to eliminate the harmful effects of the crop residue burning.

Forest Soil Management: A Mexican Experience

Forests improve the livelihoods and resilience of communities in diverse ways. In particular, soils provide important environmental services for communities in addition to performing many essential ecological functions in forest ecosystems, such as nutrient uptake, organic matter decomposition, water storage, and provision of anchorage for plant growth. The sound management of forest soils, although often disregarded, is a key element of sustainable forest management. From 2002 to 2016 the Forest Soil Conservation and Restoration Sub-Program was designed and implemented by the National Forest Commission (CONAFOR) in Mexico. Forests in Mexico have high biological diversity and are often owned, governed, and managed by communities or, in some cases, community forestry is practiced. Despite the importance of periodic monitoring to ensure that policies are both effective and suitable for diverse conditions and decision making, the policies implemented by this program were not evaluated during its years of operation. Therefore, in the present study, we aimed to identify the deficiencies of this policy as well as opportunities based on a review of the official information available on the Forest Soil Conservation and Restoration Sub-Program of CONAFOR during the 2002-2016 period and interviews with key informants. In addition, we aimed to highlight experiences that may be useful for similar soil conservation policies in tropical forest regions. The identified limitations ranged from conceptual problems such as policy weakness and lack of understanding of local drivers of soil degradation to an overly rigid implementation of soil conservation measures across diverse forest ecosystems and socio-ecological contexts. These deficiencies had several unintended outcomes: perhaps the most relevant was the inability of forest communities to build capacities for soil conservation. Another important limitation was the complete lack of monitoring of the program and its outcomes, which could have prevented its poor results. Finally, a lack of transparency in the distribution and determination of funding was noted. In conclusion, the hierarchical approach of this policy appears to have compromised its long-term efficacy.

Evaluación de prácticas de conservación de suelos forestales en México: caso de las zanjas trinchera

Given the intense soil degradation that spans almost half of Mexico, the Mexican government has establis-hed various public policies in which soil conservation practices are carried out by the owners in return for a subsidy. The main practices promoted on forest soils by these programs are mechanical, in particular, the construction of ditches.Nowadays this practice is the main soil conservation practice held in Mexico and carried out in various geo-graphical and ecological conditions; however its impact is not assessed.The international literature specifies that the goal of this practice is to facilitate the storage of rainwater in arid and semi-arid ecosystems, to reduce the length of water flow, to conserve water and promote the afforestation in degraded environments and to regúlate water runoff in urban áreas. Unlike the international experience, in Mexico this practice seeks to preserve and restore forest soils. This work aims to assess the ditches from the perspective of a practice that allows the forest soil conservation and to identify environ-mental and social conditions under which this practice may be appropriate in Mexico.The evaluation of ditches as a soil conservation practice was performed in 28 sites in seven states (Baja California Sur, Guanajuato, Hidalgo, Querétaro, Michoacán, Tlaxcala and Veracruz), addressing different ecosystems, from arid to humid tropical, expressed in a wide variability of soils and vegetation (scrub, pine, oak forest, grassland and maize).In each site we characterize the physical environment, with an emphasis on soil analysis, erosión features, infiltra-tion measures as well as interviews with landowners. Measu-rements were made in sites with and without (control sites) ditches. Infiltration was measured on the pile of excavated soil where the trees for reforestation are planted.The main findings indícate that the construction of the ditches result in a large number of negative impacts. Among them, the removal of soils as a result of the excavation of 250 ditches per hectare (recommendation of the policy pro-gram), which can mobilize 60-123 ton/ha. Given the depth of the ditch (40 cm), the removal also causes the exposition of 0.4-6.3 ton/ha of soil organic carbon, which is susceptible to mineralization. In terms of hydrologic regulation, this practice does not improve the conditions of moisture retention, which is necessary for a successful reforestation.Nowadays this practice is not adopted by the landowners. The biggest single benefit received for performing these work, either in private property or common use areas is the economic resource that the program provides. In any case was observed willingness of people to increase the area of trenches, reflecting the weak appropriation around this practice.The results and the literature review helped to identify certain environmental conditions under which the construction of ditches may be adequate: arid or semi-arid climate (aprox. 300 mm average rainfall), slope range up to 40%, shallow soils (less than 20 cm) without a clay horizon and sparse and discontinuous vegetation. These recommenda-tions were presented and discussed with decision makers and were subsequently introduced into the National Forest Program (PRONAFOR).

Forest soil conservation based on eco-service provision unit method and its value in Anji County, Huzhou, Zhejiang, China

We propose an eco-service provision unit method for estimating the benefit and spatial differences of forests in controlling soil erosion. A total of 197 eco-service provision units were grouped on 1424.43 km2 of forest according to differences in vegetation, slope, soil, and rainfall. The amount of soil conservation and its economic value were estimated. The forests in Anji County prevent 4.08 × 105 tons of soil from eroding annually, thereby avoiding 1.36 × 104 tons of nutrient loss (on-site cost) and preventing 149 tons of nutritive elements from entering water systems (off-site cost). From an economic perspective, the soil nutrient conservation in the forests of Anji County generated an annual benefit of 43.37 million RMB (Chinese Currency, 6.20 RMB = US$1). On average, each hectare of ecological forest contributed up to 436 RMB annually because of soil conservation. Ecological complexes with higher rainfall intensity, such as broadleaf forest and red soil on slope gradients >25°, contributed the highest soil conservation benefits. This study identified and quantified the dominant contributors and magnitudes of soil conservation provided by forests. This information can benefit decision making regarding differentiated ecological compensation policies.

Forest soil conservation in central Mexico: An interdisciplinary assessment

An inter-disciplinary assessment of the conservation practices on forest soils in Mexico was conducted (i) to evaluate their effectiveness in terms of soil quality indicators and (ii) to use social indicators of their acceptance and execution; such information would be a means of improving the design and implementation of public policy. After four years of soil conservation measures in areas under common ownership, involving ditches, individual terraces or arrangement of plant material, soil indicators such as bulk density, total carbon, total nitrogen and pH in nine sites and 54 plots showed deficiencies in soil properties involved in productivity and hydrological regulation, in comparison with the control groups. The results suggest that the conservation practices are not improving any of these functions. Social indicators revealed that the soil conservation program only encourages participation through economic stimulus without considering that non-financial interest can play an important role, then the rate of adoption and replication of these measures is low. These results led us to make some suggestion with policy implications such as taking into account landscape heterogeneity and social complexity to define conservation actions; considering strengthening conservation attitudes among ejidatarios and also to assess the conservation program through results that have measured the impact of the practices on the recovery of soil quality. Interdisciplinary approaches to understand attitudes for soil conservation are a prerequisite in future research. ►We assess soil conservation practices through soil and social indicators in Mexico. ► Soil conservation practices do not improve soil quality indicators. ► Our results lead us to propose new assumptions to soil conservation program. ► Subsidy is the most important incentive to realize soil conservation practices.

Does steep terrain influence tree stability? A field investigation

The anchorage of 40-year-old Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr.) trees grown in a plantation on a steep (ca. 30°) slope was compared with that of trees grown on an adjacent horizontal area. There was similar gleyed mineral soil on the sloping and horizontal areas. Trees were mechanically overturned using a winch, and anchorage was quantified by measuring load, stem angle, and tree dimensions. Trees on the slope were overturned upslope, downslope, or across-slope. Critical turning moments were calculated around the tree base and the actual hinge point. Critical wind speeds required to uproot or snap trees in this stand were modelled to compare the vulnerability of trees to upslope and downslope winds. No overall difference in anchorage was found between trees grown on the horizontal and sloping parts of the site. However, for trees on the slope, those pulled upslope showed significantly more resistance to overturning for a given stem mass than those pulled downslope. Critical turning moments calculated at the hinge point were smaller than those calculated at the stem base, but differences were small and had no effect on the comparison between treatments. Critical wind speeds for uprooting were estimated to be 28 m·s–1 for an upslope wind and 24 m·s–1 for a downslope wind on this site. The implications of these results are discussed in relation to windthrow-risk modelling and forest soil conservation.

An adaptive management process for forest soil conservation

Soil disturbance guidelines should be based on comparable disturbance categories adapted to specific local soil conditions, validated by monitoring and research. Guidelines, standards, and practices should be continually improved based on an adaptive management process, which is presented in this paper. Core components of this process include: reliable monitoring protocols for assessing and comparing soil disturbance for operations, certification and sustainability protocols; effective methods to predict the vulnerability of specific soils to disturbance and related mitigative measures; and, quantitative research to build a database that documents the practical consequences of soil disturbance for tree growth and soil functions. Key words: soil disturbance; soil compaction; rutting; monitoring (implementation, effectiveness, and validation); criteria and indicators; Montreal Process

Third Meeting of Forest Soil Conservation Working Commitee

Third Meeting of Forest Soil Conservation Working Commitee

Comment on resolution of research meeting for adjustment policies on river water control and forest soil conservation in Japan

Comment on resolution of research meeting for adjustment policies on river water control and forest soil conservation in Japan