Effects of enclosure management on carbon sequestration, soil properties and vegetation attributes in East African rangelands

Feyisa, Kenea; Beyene, Sheleme; Angassa, Ayana; Said, Mohammed Yahya; Leeuw, Jan de; Abebe, Aster; Megersa, Bekele

doi:10.1016/j.catena.2017.08.002

Cited by 52 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Increased nutrient use efficiency in plants is known to be an important strategy for adaptation to nutrient-poor habitats. Our finding that grazing exclusion increased C:N and C:P ratios and decreased N and P concentrations is not consistent with previous studies on soil nutrient enrichments ( Feyisa et al, 2017 ; Wang T. et al, 2017 ), thus suggesting that soil nutrient changes induced by grazing exclusion are not the primary reason for changes in plant nutrient strategies. In addition, we found that grazing exclusion significantly increased the C:N and C:P ratios in leaves, stems, and the aboveground parts of L. chinensis individuals.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Nutrient Characteristics in Relation to Plant Size of a Perennial Grass Under Grazing Exclusion in Degraded Grassland

et al. 2018

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Identifying the linkages between nutrient properties and plant size is important for reducing uncertainty in understanding the mechanisms of plant phenotypic plasticity. Although the positive effects of grazing exclusion on plant morphological plasticity has been well documented, surprisingly little is known about the relationship of nutrient strategies with plant shoot size after long-term grazing exclusion. We experimentally investigated the impacts of grazing exclusion over time (0, 9, 15, and 35 years) on the relationships of nutrient traits (nutrient concentration, allocation, and stoichiometry) of with morphological plasticity in Leymus chinensis, which is a dominant species in grasslands of Inner Mongolia, China. Our results showed that there was a significantly negative correlation between the degrees of plasticity and stability of various morphological traits. Increases in plant size by 126.41, 164.17, and 247.47% were observed with the increase of grazing exclusion time of 9, 15, and 35 years, respectively. Plant size was negatively correlated with nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentrations, but was positively correlated with carbon (C) concentration. Biomass partitioning and leaf to stem ratios of nutrient concentrations contributed more than 95% of the changes in N, P, and C allocation in L. chinensis leaves and stems induced by grazing exclusions. Nine years’ grazing exclusion rapidly changed the nutrient concentrations (averaged by -34.84%), leaf to stem nutrient allocations (averaged by -86.75%), and ecological stoichiometry (averaged by +46.54%) compared to free-grazing, whereas there was no significant trend of these nutrient traits across the 9, 15, and 35 years’ grazing exclusion in L. chinensis individuals. Our findings suggest that with the increase of the duration of the grazing exclusion, time effects on plant performances gradually weakened both in plant morphological plasticity and nutrient properties. There is a significant negative effect between plant sizes and nutrient traits under long-term grazing exclusion.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Nutrient Characteristics in Relation to Plant Size of a Perennial Grass Under Grazing Exclusion in Degraded Grassland

et al. 2018

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“…Subsequently, several CSA practices have been identified, and their significance towards addressing food security challenges and mitigating climate change is very well documented [10,11]. There are extensive studies on the benefits of CSA practices, including minimum tillage [12,13], crop residue management [14], soil and water conservation [15,16], agroforestry [17], and area closure [18]. However, most of this evidence has mainly been provided by short-term and/or researcher-managed field experiments, and it is therefore not possible to draw any general conclusions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Climate-Smart Agriculture on Soil Fertility, Crop Yield, and Soil Carbon in Southern Ethiopia

Tadesse

Simane

Abera³

et al. 2021

Sustainability

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It is critical to develop technologies that simultaneously improve agricultural production, offset impacts of climate change, and ensure food security in a changing climate. Within this context, considerable attention has been given to climate-smart agricultural practices (CSA). This study was conducted to investigate the effects of integrating different CSA practices on crop production, soil fertility, and carbon sequestration after being practiced continuously for up to 10 years. The CSA practices include use of soil and water conservation (SWC) structures combined with biological measures, hedgerow planting, crop residue management, grazing management, crop rotation, and perennial crop-based agroforestry systems. The landscapes with CSA interventions were compared to farmers’ business-as-usual practices (i.e., control). Wheat (Triticum sp.) yield was quantified from 245 households. The results demonstrated that yield was 30–45% higher under CSA practices than the control (p < 0.05). The total carbon stored at a soil depth of 1 m was three- to seven-fold higher under CSA landscapes than the control. CSA interventions slightly increased the soil pH and exhibited 2.2–2.6 and 1.7–2.7 times more total nitrogen and plant-available phosphorus content, respectively, than the control. The time series Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) revealed higher soil moisture content under CSA. The findings illustrated the substantial opportunity of integrating CSA practices to build climate change resilience of resource-poor farmers through improving crop yield, reducing nutrient depletion, and mitigating GHG emissions through soil carbon sequestration.

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“…Typically, it is impossible to find detailed field inventory data at a larger scale. For our study, only few empirical mineral soil data were available from local inventories, including data collected in one of our previous studies [5,9,[55][56][57][58][59][60][61]. From these published results, we derived mean soil carbon and nitrogen by land use type and a correction factor for soil carbon and nitrogen from a preparatory spin-up simulation to obtain spatially explicit soil carbon and nitrogen stocks across the study area as a starting condition for the reforestation simulations.…”

Section: Initial Soil Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Carbon Sequestration Potential of Degraded Agricultural Land in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia

Belay

Pötzelsberger

Hasenauer

2018

Forests

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Forests are a key player within the global carbon cycle and reforestation is an important climate change mitigation mechanism. In this study, we identify potentially suitable areas for reforestation to assess the carbon sequestration potential in the highly deforested and degraded Amhara region of Ethiopia. We apply biogeochemical mechanistic ecosystem modelling to predict the amount of carbon that can be potentially sequestered within different time horizons. Since human intervention plays a key role within the Amhara region, three different forest management scenarios and five different rotation periods following reforestation are tested: (i) unthinned; (ii) removal of 5% of the stem carbon every 20 years (thinning 1); and (iii) removal of 10% stem carbon every 20 years (thinning 2), as well as a rotation period of 10, 30, 50, 100, and 150 years. Sustainable management of reforested land is addressed by implementing the so called 'Normal-forest' system (equal representation of every age class). This ensures the long term sequestration effect of reforested areas. The study shows that 3.4 Mha (Mha = Million hectare) of land, including bare land (0.7 Mha), grass land (1.2 Mha), and shrub land (1.5 Mha) can be considered as ecologically potentially suitable for reforestation. Assuming a 100 year rotation period in a 'Normal-forest' system, this shows that a total net carbon sequestration potential of 177 Tg C (10.8 Tg C in the soil and 165.9 Tg C aboveground; Teragram = 10 12 g) is possible, if all 3.4 Mha are replanted. The highest total net carbon sequestration (soil and aboveground) was evident for the Highland-wet agro-ecological zone, whereas the lowest values are typically in the Midland-dry zone. The highest net aboveground carbon sequestration was predicted for reforestations on current grass land and shrub land versus bare land, whereas the highest net soil carbon sequestration was predicted on current bare land, followed by grass land and shrub land.

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Effects of enclosure management on carbon sequestration, soil properties and vegetation attributes in East African rangelands

Cited by 52 publications

References 46 publications

Nutrient Characteristics in Relation to Plant Size of a Perennial Grass Under Grazing Exclusion in Degraded Grassland

Nutrient Characteristics in Relation to Plant Size of a Perennial Grass Under Grazing Exclusion in Degraded Grassland

The Effect of Climate-Smart Agriculture on Soil Fertility, Crop Yield, and Soil Carbon in Southern Ethiopia

The Carbon Sequestration Potential of Degraded Agricultural Land in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia

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