Impact of land use changes on soil quality and species diversity in the Vindhyan dry tropical region of India

Abstract

Conversion of forest land into different land use types is the primary cause of degradation of land resources, which in turn alters nutrient and carbon cycles, land productivity and diversity of species. There is scarcity of information about land-use changes (LUC) and their effect on relationship of soil quality and species diversity at landscape level in the Vindhyan dry tropical region. We evaluated the impact of land-use changes on soil physicochemical quality and the influence of these qualities on species diversity and organic matter accumulation. We also established the relationship between soil quality indicators and species diversity parameters. To examine impact of LUC, we did a detailed field survey and analysed selected soil quality indicators by standard methods. We examined species diversity parameters and established the relationship between soil quality and species diversity. We found that there is a marked decline in soil porosity, water-holding capacity and soil moisture due to LUC. Conversion from forest land (FL) to savanna land (SL) resulted in soil organic carbon decreasing by ∼40–50%. The decrease was more pronounced in cultivated land (CL) and degraded land (DL) (65–70% and 83–85%, respectively). In the case of total N, maximum decrease in total N of 83–87% was noted in DL as compared with FL. The poor soil quality indicators in degraded and agricultural land can be explained by the interaction between the soil organic carbon and nitrogen loss with diversity loss. This study recommends that for management/restoration of land resources, planning strategies should consider the current landscape structure, with land-use planning.

Soil-litter ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) community response to reforested lands of Gishwati tropical montane forest, northern-western part of Rwanda

“…Land use changes driven by anthropogenic activities are primary drivers of biodiversity loss and altering ecosystem function, especially in tropical biomes (Srivastava et al 2019). A dominant human activity was clearing natural forests for development of agricultural activities (Czimczik et al 2005).…”

Assessment of factors that influence carbon storage: An important ecosystem service provided by mangrove forests

“…Soil texture was mostly influenced by natural conditions ( Jankowski, 2014 ). The clay content of soil directly affects BD and increases C stocks in an area ( Srivastava et al., 2020 ). As for plants, as the main C sources in mangrove areas ( Yong et al., 2011 ), the plant communities studied were directly affected by human activities.…”

Sustainability performance of organic farming at vegetable fields in Tabanan, Bali, Indonesia

“…Table 1 also describes 10 soil property indicators in the form of physical, chemical, and biological properties tested in this research, which is the minimum data set that can describe SQR as a determinant of land sustainability for agricultural use. The sustainability index is obtained by adding up the critical levels for each physical, chemical, and biological soil properties shown in Table 2, with cumulative rating (CR), which ranges from being sustainable (CR < 20) to being unsustainable (CR > 40) (Assunção et al, 2019;Maini et al, 2020;Nabiollahi et al, 2018;Srivastava et al, 2020). A QR value of <20 indicates that there are fewer soil properties that limit plant growth and production.…”