Impact of deforestation and subsequent land-use change on soil quality

Authors : Emmanuel AMOAKWAH, Mohammad A RAHMAN, Kwabena A NKETİA, Rousseau DJOUAKA, Nataliia Oleksandrivna DİDENKO, Khandakar R ISLAM

Pages : 150-160

Doi:10.18393/ejss.843861

View : 80 | Download : 9

Publication Date : 2021-04-01

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Deforestation for conventional farming has affected soil quality insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(SQ); worldwide. The goal of our study was to evaluate the impact of land use change, from forest to subsistence farming, on SQ in Benin. Composite soils from forest, horticultural, agricultural, fallow, and degraded lands were collected to analyze for chemical and physical properties. Using inductive additive approach and principal component analysis insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(PCA);, generalized insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(SQIg); and minimum dataset SQ insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(SQIMDS); indices were calculated. Results showed that upon conversion of forest, total organic carbon insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(TOC); decreased by more than 2 folds in fallow and degraded soils. A similar impact was observed on total nitrogen insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(TN);. Soil cation exchange capacity insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(CEC); and base saturation insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(BS); were significantly higher under horticulture than in degraded lands. In contrast, carbon protection capacity insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(CPC); was significantly higher by 12-41% in forest soils compared to the lowest in degraded soils. Among the land uses, aggregate stability index insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(ASI); was, by far, the lowest insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(3.2%); in degraded soils and highest insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(7.5%); in horticulture soils. Soils under fallow and degraded lands had SQIg decreased by 5 to 16%, when compared with forest, indicating a significant SQ degradation. In contrast, SQIg under horticulture increased by 5%, suggesting a similar or even an improvement in SQ comparable to the forest. The PCA-based SQIMDS significantly and positively accounted for 70% of the variability in SQIg with a non-significant biasness insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(6 ± 3.8% at p<0.12);. The TOC and CPC contributed most insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(20.9% and 21.1%); followed by clay insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(14.1%); and Ca+2: insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(Mg+2 + K+1 + Na+); insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(13.7%);, TOC insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(11%);, and ASI insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(10.5%); compared to lowest by K+ insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(9.7%); to account for SQIMDS variability. Our results concluded that there was no significant difference between SQIg and SQIMDS, which justified our results to use SQIMDS detecting management-induced changes in SQ.
Keywords : Soil degradation, slush burn agriculture, Carbon protection capacity, minimum dataset, Soil quality

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