DOCSLIB.ORG

Land Use Effects on Soil Quality and Productivity in the Lake Victoria Basin of Uganda

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Land Use Effects on Soil Quality and Productivity in the Lake Victoria Basin of Uganda LAND USE EFFECTS ON SOIL QUALITY AND PRODUCTIVITY IN THE LAKE VICTORIA BASIN OF UGANDA DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Lukman Nagaya Mulumba ***** The Ohio State University 2004 Dissertation Committee Approved by Professor Rattan Lal, Adviser Professor Norman Fausey Professor Fred Hitzhusen _____________________________ Professor Frank Calhoun Advisor Soil Science Graduate Program ABSTRACT Soil quality indices are useful tools for assessing agronomic/ biomass productivity and ascertaining temporal changes in soil properties in relation to land use and management. This study was conducted in the Lake Victoria region in Masaka, Uganda to: (a) identify key soil properties that impact soil quality and agronomic productivity; (b) evaluate soil quality-management inter-relationships; (c) evaluate the use of soil reflectance as a soil quality indicator, and (d) determine the cost and returns of different cropping systems. Bulk and core soil samples were collected from the 0-20 and 20 – 50 cm depths, from the farmers’ fields, in order to determine soil organic carbon, nitrogen, calcium, phosphorous, magnesium, pH, _13C, _15N, coarse fragments, soil bulk density and soil texture. Saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) was determined in the field using a tension infiltrometer and soil depth using an auger. The soil degradation rating was assessed by assigning parametric values to levels of SOC, soil bulk density, Ks, soil texture, soil pH, soil depth and the proportion of coarse fragments in the top soil and these parameters were utilized to develop a single index. Air dry samples were scanned using a spectrometer and the first derivative of the spectral data was calibrated against the measured soil properties. Results indicated that soil quality was affected by SOC, soil depth and Ks. No direct effects of management on soil quality were discerned. Good predictions of several soil properties were obtained using the spectral data. Although a majority of farmers planted bananas as the first choice crop, the highest net returns were obtained from coffee while the highest costs were ii measured for bananas implying that food self sufficiency was the major determinant of the choice of crop to be grown. It was recommended that grasslands must not be converted to agricultural land use because of their high susceptibility to soil degradation and that farmers be sensitized to think beyond food-self sufficiency, a goal that could also be achieved through strategies which increase farm income. iii Dedicated to my family for all the sacrifices they made for me iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to extend my gratitude to the Rockefeller Foundation whose fellowship enabled me to pursue a doctorate degree at the Ohio State University. I also wish to thank my advisor, Dr. Rattan Lal, for providing advice and support through the academic program and research. Special thanks go to Dr. Keith Shepherd, of ICRAF, for his guidance and support when I was during the field work and data analysis. I also wish to acknowledge the other dissertation committee members, Professors Norman Fausey, Fred Hitzhusen, and Frank Calhoun for the time they took out of their schedules to serve on my committee and provide professional input throughout the duration of my study. Without their help, this dissertation would not have been completed. I recognize the contribution of Dr. Moses Tenywa of Makerere University, Mr. Kabango Fred of Masaka, Richard Coe of ICRAF and Andrew Sila of ICRAF for the support and assistance that they rendered to me. I’m also thankful to Mr. Kalule, Mukiibi, Meddy, and Emma for their perseverance and assistance during data collection. Other thanks go to the staff of ICRAF and Makerere University for their cooperation and support in one way or the other. Special thanks are also due to Dr. Harriet Nannyonga for all the assistance she rendered to my family during data collection and while writing up this dissertation. I greatly indebted to my parents, Haji Badru Mulumba and Mrs Hasifa Mulumba for all the support and sacrifice that they had to make for me to get a decent education. v Last but not least, I’m thankful to my wife Birungi, my daughter Mariam and my son Nasser for their inspiration and moral support and long patience as I undertook my studies. vi VITA January 20, 1967 ………… Born – Jinja, Uganda. 1990 ……………………… B.Sc. Agriculture, Makerere University, Uganda. 1993 ……………………… M.Sc. Land and Water Management, University of Nairobi, Kenya. 1993- 1994 ……………… Lecturer, Makerere University 1994- 1996 ……………… Soil Scientist, Farmer Participatory Research Unit, ActionAid. 1995- 1999 ……………… Agriculture Officer, Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries. 1999 - Present …………… Graduate Student, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH. PUBLICATIONS Tenywa, M.M., L.M.Nagaya and D.Bwamiki. 1995. Soil Sampling Criteria for Spatially Variable Soils. SSSEA, Conference held November 21-25, 1994, in Mbarara, Uganda. In. M.C. Rwakaikara, M.A Bekunda and J.S. Tenywa. (eds.). Proceedings of the Soil Science Society of East Africa conference, pp 229-235. Nagaya L.M (1995): Participatory Evaluation of On-Farm Soil trials, a paper presented at the 14th conference of the Soil Science Society of East Africa, Mbarara vii FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Soil Science Minor Field: Environmental Economics viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract...........................................................................................................................ii Acknowledgments...........................................................................................................v Vita...............................................................................................................................vii List of Tables .................................................................................................................xi List of Figures..............................................................................................................xiv Chapter 1 ........................................................................................................................1 Introduction.....................................................................................................................1 1.1 Background and Setting ..............................................................................1 1.2 Statement of the Problem ............................................................................5 1.3 Objectives of the Study ...............................................................................6 1.4 Hypotheses to be tested...............................................................................7 1.5 Goals and Significance of the study.............................................................8 1.6 Study Area..................................................................................................8 Chapter 2 ......................................................................................................................16 Review of Literature......................................................................................................16 2.1 Soil Erosion ..............................................................................................16 2.2 Soil Quality...............................................................................................24 2.3 The Banana-Coffee System.......................................................................35 2.4 Modeling Soil Quality, Erosion and Productivity ......................................36 2.5 The Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy ......................................................40 2.6 Soil Organic Carbon .................................................................................42 2.7 Exchangeable Potassium...........................................................................48 2.8 Magnesium ...............................................................................................48 2.9 Calcium ....................................................................................................49 2.10 Land use and Management Practices.........................................................49 2.11 Soils of the Tropics ...................................................................................55 Chapter 3 ......................................................................................................................59 Methodology.................................................................................................................59 3.1 Research Design .......................................................................................59 3.2 Methodology........................................................................................... 655 ix 3.3 Laboratory Measurements.........................................................................69 3.4 Mini Survey..............................................................................................75 3.5 Data Analysis............................................................................................76 Chapter 4 ......................................................................................................................78 Results and Discussion..................................................................................................78 4.1 Soil Physical Properties.............................................................................78
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Soil Properties and Pre-Columbian Settlement Patterns in The
    SOIL, 1, 65–81, 2015 www.soil-journal.net/1/65/2015/ doi:10.5194/soil-1-65-2015 SOIL © Author(s) 2015. CC Attribution 3.0 License. Soil properties and pre-Columbian settlement patterns in the Monumental Mounds Region of the Llanos de Moxos, Bolivian Amazon U. Lombardo1,2, S. Denier1, and H. Veit1 1Universität Bern, Geographisches Institut, Hallerstrasse 12, 3012 Bern, Switzerland 2CaSeS research group, IMF-CSIC, C/Egipciaques, 15-08001 Barcelona, Spain Correspondence to: U. Lombardo ([email protected]) Received: 5 May 2014 – Published in SOIL Discuss.: 15 May 2014 Revised: – – Accepted: 26 September 2014 – Published: 6 January 2015 Abstract. In the present paper we explore to what degree soil properties might have influenced pre-Columbian settlement patterns in the Monumental Mounds Region (MMR) of the Llanos de Moxos (LM), Bolivian Amazon. Monumental mounds are pre-Hispanic earth buildings and were preferentially built on mid- to late Holocene palaeolevees of the Grande River (here denominated PR1), while levees of older palaeorivers (PR0) were only sparsely occupied. We dug two transects across PR0 and PR1 levee–backswamp catenas and analysed them for grain size, pH, cation exchange capacity (CEC) and Corg. Our data show that PR1 soils, where the density of mounds is higher, have far greater agricultural potential than PR0 soils, which are affected by aluminium toxicity in the backswamps and by high levels of exchangeable sodium in the levees. This study provides new data on the soil properties of the south-eastern Bolivian Amazon and reinforces the hypothesis that environmental constraints and opportunities exerted an important role on pre-Columbian occupation patterns and the population density reached in the Bolivian Amazon.
    [Show full text]
  • Prairie Wetland Soils: Gleysolic and Organic Angela Bedard-Haughn Department of Soil Science, University of Saskatchewan
    PS&C Prairie Soils & Crops Journal Agricultural Soils of the Prairies Prairie Wetland Soils: Gleysolic and Organic Angela Bedard-Haughn Department of Soil Science, University of Saskatchewan Summary Gleysolic and Organic soils are collectively referred to as “wetland soils”. They are found in wet low-lying or level landscape positions. Gleysolic soils are found throughout the agricultural Prairies, in association with Chernozemic and Luvisolic soils. In semi-arid regions, they are frequently tilled in dry years and can be very productive due to their relatively high levels of soil moisture and nutrients. In the Prairie Provinces, Organic soils tend to be mostly associated with the Boreal transition zones at the northern and eastern perimeter of the Prairies. With proper management, these can also provide productive agricultural land, particularly for forages. Introduction Soils of the Gleysolic and Organic orders are collectively referred to as “wetland soils”. Soil maps of the agricultural region of the Canadian Prairies seldom have areas mapped as dominantly Gleysolic8 or Organic9; however, these soils are found throughout the region wherever climate and/or topography have led to persistent water-saturated conditions. Gleysols are mineral soils with colors that reflect intermittent or prolonged anaerobic (i.e., saturated, low oxygen) conditions (Fig. 1A). Organic soils reflect permanent anaerobic conditions, which lead to soils that are made up of variably decomposed plant residues, mostly from water-tolerant (i.e., hydrophytic) vegetation (Fig. 1B). Figure 1: A) Humic Luvic Gleysol, Saskatchewan and B) Typic Fibrisol (Organic), Manitoba7. Of the some 100,000,000 ha covered by the Canada Land Inventory (CLI) in the Prairie Provinces12, Gleysolic soils occupy less than 15% of the Prairie ecoregions and up to 40% in the Mid-Boreal (boreal = “northern”) Upland (Alberta) and Interlake Plain (Manitoba) ecoregions12.
    [Show full text]
  • World Reference Base for Soil Resources 2014 International Soil Classification System for Naming Soils and Creating Legends for Soil Maps
    ISSN 0532-0488 WORLD SOIL RESOURCES REPORTS 106 World reference base for soil resources 2014 International soil classification system for naming soils and creating legends for soil maps Update 2015 Cover photographs (left to right): Ekranic Technosol – Austria (©Erika Michéli) Reductaquic Cryosol – Russia (©Maria Gerasimova) Ferralic Nitisol – Australia (©Ben Harms) Pellic Vertisol – Bulgaria (©Erika Michéli) Albic Podzol – Czech Republic (©Erika Michéli) Hypercalcic Kastanozem – Mexico (©Carlos Cruz Gaistardo) Stagnic Luvisol – South Africa (©Márta Fuchs) Copies of FAO publications can be requested from: SALES AND MARKETING GROUP Information Division Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Viale delle Terme di Caracalla 00100 Rome, Italy E-mail: [email protected] Fax: (+39) 06 57053360 Web site: http://www.fao.org WORLD SOIL World reference base RESOURCES REPORTS for soil resources 2014 106 International soil classification system for naming soils and creating legends for soil maps Update 2015 FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS Rome, 2015 The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by FAO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of FAO.
    [Show full text]
  • Drained Organic Soils Under Agriculture
    Geoderma 355 (2019) 113911 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Geoderma journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/geoderma Drained organic soils under agriculture — The more degraded the soil the higher the specific basal respiration T ⁎ Annelie Säuricha,1, Bärbel Tiemeyera, , Axel Dona, Sabine Fiedlerb, Michel Bechtolda,2, Wulf Amelungc, Annette Freibauera,3 a Thünen Institute of Climate-Smart Agriculture, Bundesallee 65, 38116 Braunschweig, Germany b Institute for Geography, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, 55099 Mainz, Germany c University of Bonn, Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation, Soil Science and Soil Ecology, Nussallee 13, 53115 Bonn, Germany ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Handling Editor: Ingrid Kögel-Knabner Drained peatlands are hotspots of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from agricultural soils. As a consequence of Keywords: both drainage-induced mineralisation and anthropogenic mixing with mineral soils, large areas of former Carbon dioxide peatlands under agricultural use underwent a secondary transformation of the peat (e.g. formation of ag- Peatland agriculture gregates). These soils show contents of soil organic carbon (SOC) at the boundary between mineral and organic Heinemeyer incubation soils. However, the carbon (C) dynamics of such soils have rarely been studied so far. The aim of the present Anthropogenic disturbance study was to evaluate the vulnerability of soil organic matter (SOM) to decomposition over the whole range of − Peat-sand-mixing peat-derived soils under agriculture including very carbon rich mineral soils (76–526 g kg 1 SOC). A total of 62 soil samples covering a broad range of soil and site characteristics were selected from the sample set of the German Agricultural Soil Inventory.
    [Show full text]
  • Are CH4, CO2, and N2O Emissions from Soil Affected by the Sources and Doses of N in Warm-Season Pasture?
    atmosphere Article Are CH4, CO2, and N2O Emissions from Soil Affected by the Sources and Doses of N in Warm-Season Pasture? Darlena Caroline da Cruz Corrêa, Abmael da Silva Cardoso * , Mariane Rodrigues Ferreira, Débora Siniscalchi, Ariana Desie Toniello, Gilmar Cotrin de Lima, Ricardo Andrade Reis and Ana Claudia Ruggieri Departamento de Zootecnia, Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias, UNESP—Universty Estadual Paulista, Jaboticabal 14884-900, SP, Brazil; [email protected] (D.C.d.C.C.); [email protected] (M.R.F.); [email protected] (D.S.); [email protected] (A.D.T.); [email protected] (G.C.d.L.); [email protected] (R.A.R.); [email protected] (A.C.R.) * Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract: The intensification of pasture production has increased the use of N fertilizers—a practice that can alter soil greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the fluxes of CH4, CO2, and N2O in the soil of Urochloa brizantha ‘Marandu’ pastures fertilized with different sources and doses of N. Two field experiments were conducted to evaluate GHG fluxes following N fertilization with urea, ammonium nitrate, and ammonium sulfate at doses of 0, 90, 180, and 270 kg N ha−1. GHG fluxes were quantified using the static chamber technique and gas chromatography. In both experiments, the sources and doses of N did not significantly affect cumulative GHG emissions, while N fertilization significantly affected cumulative N O and CO 2 2 emissions compared to the control treatment. The N2O emission factor following fertilization with urea, ammonium nitrate, and ammonium sulfate was lower than the United Nations’ Intergovern- Citation: Corrêa, D.C.d.C.; Cardoso, A.d.S.; Ferreira, M.R.; Siniscalchi, D.; mental Panel on Climate Change standard (0.35%, 0.24%, and 0.21%, respectively, with fractionation Toniello, A.D.; Lima, G.C.d.; Reis, fertilization and 1.00%, 0.83%, and 1.03%, respectively, with single fertilization).
    [Show full text]
  • Effect in the Physical and Chemical Properties of Gleysol Soil After an Electro-Kinetic Treatment in Presence of Surfactant Triton X - 114 to Remove Hydrocarbon
    Int. J. Electrochem. Sci., 6 (2011) 1250 - 1268 International Journal of ELECTROCHEMICAL SCIENCE www.electrochemsci.org Effect in the Physical and Chemical Properties of Gleysol Soil after an Electro-kinetic Treatment in Presence of Surfactant Triton X - 114 to Remove Hydrocarbon Erika Méndez1, D. Castellanos1, G. I. Alba1, Gilberto Hernández2, Sara Solís2, Gilles Levresse2, Marina Vega2, Francisco Rodríguez3, Eleazar Urbina3, M. C. Cuevas4, M. G. García5, Erika Bustos1,* 1 Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo Tecnológico en Electroquímica, S. C. Parque Tecnológico Querétaro, Sanfandila, Pedro Escobedo, 76703, Querétaro. 2 Centro de Geociencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Campus Juriquilla, Boulevard Juriquilla 3001, Querétaro 76230, México. 3 Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del I.P.N., Unidad Querétaro, Juriquilla, Santiago de Querétaro, México. 4 Universidad Veracruzana, Campus Región Coatzacoalcos, Chihuahua 803, Petrolera, Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, 96400, México. 5 Universidad de Guanajuato, Cerro de la Venada, Pueblito de Rocha, Guanajuato, Gto. 36040, México. *E-mail: [email protected] Received: 6 March 2011 / Accepted: 9 April 2011 / Published: 1 May 2011 The effects of the electro - kinetic treatment in presence of surfactant Triton X – 114 on the physical and chemical properties of Gleysol soil were investigated. With the characterization of polluted Gleysol soil, the results showed the highest concentration of greases and oils related with hydrocarbon content in the fraction of soil between 50 and 100 m, which is the smallest group of particle size with 4 452 mg kg-1 of light and medium petroleum fraction. This sand fraction of polluted soil showed a decrease of real density with an increase of organic matter content, because they have low densities than saturated fractions and are more easily oxidized by the Walkley - Black method.
    [Show full text]
  • Microbial Biomass and Basal Respiration of Selected Sub-Antarctic and Antarctic Soils in the Areas of Some Russian Polar Stations
    Solid Earth, 5, 705–712, 2014 www.solid-earth.net/5/705/2014/ doi:10.5194/se-5-705-2014 © Author(s) 2014. CC Attribution 3.0 License. Microbial biomass and basal respiration of selected Sub-Antarctic and Antarctic soils in the areas of some Russian polar stations E. Abakumov and N. Mukhametova Department of Applied Ecology, Saint Petersburg State University, 199178, 16-line Vasilyevskiy Island, 29, Russia Correspondence to: E. Abakumov ([email protected]) Received: 6 February 2014 – Published in Solid Earth Discuss.: 18 March 2014 Revised: 25 May 2014 – Accepted: 22 June 2014 – Published: 29 July 2014 Abstract. Antarctica is a unique place for soil, biological, preted as a result of higher amounts of fresh organic rem- and ecological investigations. Soils of Antarctica have been nants in organic and organo-mineral horizons. The soils of studied intensively during the last century, when different na- King George Island also have higher portions of micro- tional Antarctic expeditions visited the sixth continent with bial biomass (max 1.54 mg g−1) compared to coastal (max the aim of investigating nature and the environment. Antarc- 0.26 mg g−1) and continental (max 0.22 mg g−1) Antarctic tic investigations are comprised of field surveys mainly in soils. Sub-Antarctic soils differ from Antarctic ones mainly the terrestrial landscapes, where the polar stations of differ- by having increased organic layer thickness and total organic ent countries are situated. That is why the main and most de- carbon content, higher microbial biomass carbon content, tailed soil surveys were conducted in the McMurdo Valleys, basal respiration, and metabolic activity levels.
    [Show full text]
  • Influence of Soil Type on the Reliability of the Prediction Model
    agronomy Article Influence of Soil Type on the Reliability of the Prediction Model for Bioavailability of Mn, Zn, Pb, Ni and Cu in the Soils of the Republic of Serbia Jelena Maksimovi´c*, Radmila Pivi´c,Aleksandra Stanojkovi´c-Sebi´c , Marina Jovkovi´c,Darko Jaramaz and Zoran Dini´c Institute of Soil Science, Teodora Drajzera 7, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia; [email protected] (R.P.); [email protected] (A.S.-S.); [email protected] (M.J.); [email protected] (D.J.); [email protected] (Z.D.) * Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract: The principles of sustainable agriculture in the 21st century are based on the preservation of basic natural resources and environmental protection, which is achieved through a multidisciplinary approach in obtaining solutions and applying information technologies. Prediction models of bioavailability of trace elements (TEs) represent the basis for the development of machine learning and artificial intelligence in digital agriculture. Since the bioavailability of TEs is influenced by the physicochemical properties of the soil, which are characteristic of the soil type, in order to obtain more reliable prediction models in this study, the testing set from the previous study was grouped based on the soil type. The aim of this study was to examine the possibility of improvement in the prediction of bioavailability of TEs by using a different strategy of model development. After the training set was grouped based on the criteria for the new model development, the developed basic models were compared to the basic models from the previous study. The second step was to develop Citation: Maksimovi´c,J.; Pivi´c,R.; models based on the soil type (for the eight most common soil types in the Republic of Serbia—RS) Stanojkovi´c-Sebi´c,A.; Jovkovi´c,M.; and to compare their reliability to the basic models.
    [Show full text]
  • Dynamics of Resistant Soil Carbon of Midwestern Agricultural Soils Measured by Naturally Occurring 14C Abundance E.A
    Geoderma 104Ž. 2001 239–256 www.elsevier.comrlocatergeoderma Dynamics of resistant soil carbon of Midwestern agricultural soils measured by naturally occurring 14C abundance E.A. Paul a,), H.P. Collins b, S.W. Leavitt c a Crop and Soil Sciences, Michigan State UniÕersity, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA b Vegetable and Forage Research Unit, USDA-ARS, Prosser, WA 98350, USA c Lab of Tree-Ring Research, UniÕersity of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA Received 23 May 2000; received in revised form 22 March 2001; accepted 25 April 2001 Abstract Information on the mean residence timeŽ. MRT of soil organic carbon Ž. SOC on different soil types and management regimes is required for pedo-geological, agronomic, ecological and global change interpretations. This is best determined by carbon dating the total soil together with acid hydrolysis and carbon dating of the non-hydrolyzable residueŽ. NHC . Midwestern US soils in a transect from Lamberton, MN to Kutztown, PA were found to contain from 33% to 65% of their SOC in the non-hydrolyzable fraction. Soils on lacustrine deposits had the most NHC; glacial till and shale soils, the least. The MRTs of the SOC of surface horizons of soil ranged from modern to 1100 years with an average of 560 years. The MRT increased to an average of 1700 years in the 25–50-cm depth increment and 2757 years at 50–100 cm. The NHC was 1340 years greater at the surface and 5584 years at depth. The MRTs of the total SOC were inversely correlated to sand and directly related to clay content.
    [Show full text]
  • Annex: Soil Groups, Characteristics, Distribution and Ecosystem Services
    Status of the World’s Main Report Soil Resources Annex Soil groups, characteristics, distribution and ecosystem services © FAO | Giuseppe Bizzarri © FAO INTERGOVERNMENTAL TECHNICAL PANEL ON SOILS Disclaimer and copyright Recommended citation: FAO and ITPS. 2015. Status of the World’s Soil Resources (SWSR) – Main Report. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils, Rome, Italy The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by FAO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of FAO. ISBN 978-92-5-109004-6 © FAO, 2015 FAO encourages the use, reproduction and dissemination of material in this information product. Except where otherwise indicated, material may be copied, downloaded and printed for private study, research and teaching purposes, or for use in non-commercial products or services, provided that appropriate acknowledgement of FAO as the source and copyright holder is given and that FAO’s endorsement of users’ views, products or services is not implied in any way.
    [Show full text]
  • Classification of Soil Systems on the Basis of Transfer Factors of Radionuclides from Soil to Reference Plants
    IAEA-TECDOC-1497 Classification of soil systems on the basis of transfer factors of radionuclides from soil to reference plants Proceedings of a final research coordination meeting organized by the Joint FAO/IAEA Programme of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture and held in Chania, Crete, 22–26 September 2003 June 2006 IAEA-TECDOC-1497 Classification of soil systems on the basis of transfer factors of radionuclides from soil to reference plants Report of the final research coordination meeting organized by the Joint FAO/IAEA Programme of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture held in Chania, Crete, 22–26 September 2003 June 2006 The originating Section of this publication in the IAEA was: Food and Environmental Protection Section International Atomic Energy Agency Wagramer Strasse 5 P.O. Box 100 A-1400 Vienna, Austria CLASSIFICATION OF SOIL SYSTEMS ON THE BASIS OF TRANSFER FACTORS OF RADIONUCLIDES FROM SOIL TO REFERENCE PLANTS IAEA, VIENNA, 2006 IAEA-TECDOC-1497 ISBN 92–0–105906–X ISSN 1011–4289 © IAEA, 2006 Printed by the IAEA in Austria June 2006 FOREWORD The IAEA Basic Safety Standards for Radiation Protection include the general requirement to keep all doses as low as reasonably achievable, taking account of economic and social considerations, within the overall constraint of individual dose limits. National and Regional authorities have to set release limits for radioactive effluent and also to establish contingency plans to deal with an uncontrolled release following an accident or terrorist activity. It is normal practice to assess radiation doses to man by means of radiological assessment models. In this context the IAEA published (1994), in cooperation with the International Union of Radioecologists (IUR), a Handbook of Parameter Values for the Prediction of Radionuclide Transfer in Temperate Environments to facilitate such calculations.
    [Show full text]
  • Variations in Soil Properties and CO2 Emissions of a Temperate Forest Gully Soil Along a Topographical Gradient
    Article Variations in Soil Properties and CO2 Emissions of a Temperate Forest Gully Soil along a Topographical Gradient Anna Walkiewicz 1,* , Piotr Bulak 1 , Małgorzata Brzezi ´nska 1 , Mohammad I. Khalil 2 and Bruce Osborne 3 1 Institute of Agrophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Do´swiadczalna4, 20-290 Lublin, Poland; [email protected] (P.B.); [email protected] (M.B.) 2 School of Applied Sciences and Technology, Prudence College Dublin, 22 Dublin, Ireland; [email protected] 3 UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science and UCD Earth Institute, University College Dublin, Belfield, 4 Dublin, Ireland; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract: Although forest soils play an important role in the carbon cycle, the influence of topography has received little attention. Since the topographical gradient may affect CO2 emissions and C sequestration, the aims of the study were: (1) to identify the basic physicochemical and microbial parameters of the top, mid-slope, and bottom of a forest gully; (2) to carry out a quantitative assessment of CO2 emission from these soils incubated at different moisture conditions (9% and 12% v/v) and controlled temperature (25 ◦C); and (3) to evaluate the interdependence between the examined parameters. We analyzed the physicochemical (content of total N, organic C, pH, clay, silt, and sand) and microbial (enzymatic activity, basal respiration, and soil microbial biomass) parameters of the gully upper, mid-slope, and bottom soil. The Fourier Transformed Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) method was used to measure CO2 emitted from soils. The position in the forest gully had a significant effect on all soil variables with the gully bottom having the highest pH, C, N concentration, microbial Citation: Walkiewicz, A.; Bulak, P.; biomass, catalase activity, and CO emissions.
    [Show full text]