Effects of cropping and short-natural fallow rotation on soil organic carbon in the Eastern Province of Zambia

Andō, Kazuhiko; Shinjo, Hitoshi; Kuramitsu, Hajime; Miura, Reiichi; Sokotela, Sesele; Funakawa, Shinya

doi:10.1016/j.agee.2014.06.012

Cited by 16 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…The lack of any clear positive trend in SOC has previously been attributed to both fire and termite activity decoupling above-and belowground stocks via the removal of the surface litter layer (Williams et al 2008. Soil carbon stocks are also strongly impacted by the intensity and length of cultivation, which was poorly known in our older plots (Zingore et al 2005, Ando et al 2014. In some plots, the residence time of both crop (C 4 ) and woodlandderived (C 3 ) SOC may outlast the period of cultivation, making trends more difficult to observe (Bruun et al 2013).…”

Section: Land Use Change Effects On Soil Carbon Stocksmentioning

confidence: 80%

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How resilient are African woodlands to disturbance from shifting cultivation?

McNicol

Ryan

Williams

2015

Ecological Applications

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Large parts of sub-Saharan Africa are experiencing rapid changes in land use and land cover, driven largely by the expansion of small-scale shifting cultivation. This practice creates complex mosaic landscapes with active agricultural fields and patches of mature woodland, interspersed with remnant patches in various stages of regrowth. Our objective here was to examine the rate and extent to which carbon stocks in trees and soils recover after cultivation, and detail how this disturbance and regrowth affect patterns in tree species composition and diversity over 40 years of succession in a miombo woodland landscape in southeast Tanzania. We sampled 67 areas, including plots previously cleared for cultivation, active fields, and mature woodlands for reference purposes. Sites were further stratified by soil texture to test for associated effects. Tree carbon stocks accumulated at an average rate of 0.83 ± 0.10 Mg C x ha(-1) x yr(-1), with soil texture having no clear impact on accumulation rates. Bulk soil carbon stocks on both soil types appeared unaffected by both the initial land clearance and the subsequent regrowth, which resulted in no significant changes over time. Tree species diversity in regrowing plots developed rapidly and within -10 years was equivalent to that of mature woodland. Many of the species found in mature woodlands reappeared relatively quickly after abandonment, although species composition is expected to take considerably longer to recover, with at least 60-80 years required for the compositional similarity between regrowing and mature woodlands to reach levels similar to that among nearby mature woodlands. Through impacts on β-diversity, disturbance was also found to increase the total number of tree species present in the landscape, with many of the recorded species only found in regrowing woodlands. Our results are of relevance to carbon sequestration projects by helping to inform the potential future carbon and biodiversity benefits of restoring disturbed habitats (REDD+). At a time where the use of shifting cultivation is threatened by shifts to larger-scale, commercial agriculture, we show that secondary woodland habitats can retain considerable biodiversity value, and act as carbon sinks.

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Section: Land Use Change Effects On Soil Carbon Stocksmentioning

confidence: 80%

“…In African woodlands, there are no long-term studies with which to observe changes in both carbon stocks and biodiversity following agricultural clearance (although see Ando et al 2014). Consequently, our understanding is necessarily based on establishing chronosequences (Martin et al 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How resilient are African woodlands to disturbance from shifting cultivation?

McNicol

Ryan

Williams

2015

Ecological Applications

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“…Regardless of being determined by the precipitation and flood regimes, the crop-fallow rotation is advantageous in terms of fostering the soil food chain, sustaining natural pest control and ecosystem health, and lessening the adverse agronomic and ecological impacts of mono-culture (Peairs et al, 2005). Also, this cropping system is expected to increase sequestration of soil organic carbon (Ando et al, 2014), improving the overall soil quality and geo-ecosystem functioning.…”

Section: General Discussion and Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ancient Runoff Harvesting Agriculture in the Hyper‐Arid Uvda Valley of Israel: An Agro‐Hydrological Assessment

et al. 2017

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Archaeological surveys conducted since the 1980s in the hyper‐arid Uvda Valley of southern Israel revealed extensive lands with runoff harvesting systems for growing barley and wheat during ancient times. Despite the impossibility of dating the earth and stone installations of terraces and limans due to their decay over time, a wealth of ancient agricultural tools located across the valley revealed inhabitation between the Late Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Early Bronze ages. Also, cropping of barley in the valley's runoff harvesting systems took place until the 1950s by local Bedouin populations. The objective of this study was to assess the valley's agronomic potential under current climatic conditions. This was assessed by the analysis of precipitation (P) and reference evapotranspiration (ETo) data for the rainy seasons during a 17‐year period between 1999–2000 and 2015–2016. Using the ETo data and the single crop coefficient (Kc) for barley and wheat allowed the calculation of crop evapotranspiration (ETc) and the seasonal soil water deficit (D). Hydrological assessment of the valley's basin allowed the calculation of potential runoff volumes which could be available for agricultural use on the valley floor. Overall, the results showed a potential for successful cereal cultivation only in one to two years during this 17‐year period. This revealed no viability for local agriculture under current climatic conditions. Insights from this study consist with other studies which indicated considerably drier climatic conditions at present compared to those in ancient times, and even compared to those in the mid‐twentieth century. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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“…However, there is little information regarding the effect of short-term crop cultivation on the soil nutrient status in tropical Africa (Gnankambary et al 2008). Based on long-term (>10 years) field experiments, many studies have found that soil degradation is caused by soil organic matter (C, N, and P) depletion after the conversion of natural vegetation to cropland (Lemenih et al 2005;Murty et al 2002), but there is little information regarding the short-term (<2-4 years) effects of crop cultivation on the C, N, and P availability of soils in tropical Africa (Ando et al 2014). This is because, the evaluated soil C and N parameters were mainly total C and N contents of the soil.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of 3-year cultivation on the soil nutrient status in a tropical forest and savanna of Central Africa, as determined by the microbial responses to substrate addition

Sugihara

Fujimori

Shibata

et al. 2018

Soil Science and Plant Nutrition

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The forest-savanna transition zone is widely distributed on nutrient-poor Oxisols in Central Africa, and a population explosion has led to the rapid cultivation of these vegetation types in this zone. To reveal and compare the effects of short-term (3 years) cultivation on the soil nutrient status of the forest and savanna vegetation in this area, we evaluated microbial nutrient limitation and availability by conducting hourly measurements of soil microbial respiration after the addition of glucose in combination with nitrogen (N) and/or phosphorus (P) to soils that were collected from a forest site (FOR), a savanna site (SAV), as well as cropland for 3 years derived from a forest (Crop-F) and a savanna (Crop-S), in eastern Cameroon. The N addition had little effect on the pattern of microbial respiration rate for the FOR and Crop-F sites, indicating N rich for microbes. In contrast, N addition resulted in the increases in maximal respiration rates after the exponential increase for the SAV and CropS sites, indicating microbial N limitation, and cultivation accelerated the soil N depletion. Furthermore, we observed that P addition resulted in the increase in the maximal respiration rates, indicating microbial P limitation for all sites, except for FOR site. Since the cultivation significantly affected the microbial properties only in the forest ecosystem, such as the increase in the microbial specific growth rate and the decreased microbial C:N and C:P ratios, these changes would induce the P limitation for Crop-F. These results indicate that (1) the FOR site was a N-rich ecosystem for soil microbes, and 3 years of cultivation in the Crop-F site did not alter the high soil N status but induced microbial P limitation, with the changes in the microbial properties, and that (2) the SAV site was N and P limited for soil microbes, and 3 years of cultivation clearly decreased the soil N availability.

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Effects of cropping and short-natural fallow rotation on soil organic carbon in the Eastern Province of Zambia

Cited by 16 publications

References 42 publications

How resilient are African woodlands to disturbance from shifting cultivation?

How resilient are African woodlands to disturbance from shifting cultivation?

Ancient Runoff Harvesting Agriculture in the Hyper‐Arid Uvda Valley of Israel: An Agro‐Hydrological Assessment

Effects of 3-year cultivation on the soil nutrient status in a tropical forest and savanna of Central Africa, as determined by the microbial responses to substrate addition

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