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A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Agricultural Soils".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 July 2023) | Viewed by 12052

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Prof. Dr. Ilyusya M. Gabbasova

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Guest Editor

Laboratory of Soil Science, Ufa Institute of Biology UFRC RAS, Ufa 450054, Russia
Interests: soil properties; amendments; heavy metals; soil remediation; fertilizers

Dr. Mikhail Komissarov

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Guest Editor

Laboratory of Soil Science, Ufa Institute of Biology UFRC RAS, Ufa 450054, Russia
Interests: soil erosion; rainfall simulation; radiocesium; snowmelt; irrigation
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Dear Colleagues,

Soil is the most important component of the biosphere, without which neither its normal functioning nor the production of food to mankind is possible. The land area on Earth is 14.9 billion ha, and all the most suitable soils for agriculture (about 11% of land) are already used. More than half of arable soils are degraded at different levels. According to the UN, 12 million ha of land (23 ha per minute) are lost every year due to drought and desertification alone.

Soil degradation types are divided into water and wind erosion, salinization, loss of nutrients and soil organic matter (with CO₂ emission into the atmosphere), pollution, waterlogging, desertification, etc. These processes are caused by anthropogenic impact to a large extent. The intensity some of them has increased significantly due to global climate change.

Objective diagnostics and development of evaluation criteria are necessary to select adequate measures to reduce degradation processes and soil remediation. The restoration of soil fertility is an important part of achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

Changing of soil properties under prolonged climatic and anthropogenic impact (desertification, waterlogging, ploughing, fertilizing, etc.);
Laboratory and field study of soil erosion caused by rainfall, snowmelt, fires, irrigation, etc.;
Impact of pollutants (heavy metals, including radioisotopes) and amendments on soil properties and crop yield;
All aspects of the remediation of degraded soils;
Digital soil mapping and remote sensing approaches in agriculture.

Prof. Dr. Ilyusya M. Gabbasova
Dr. Mikhail Komissarov
Guest Editors

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Keywords

degradation
erosion
desertification
waterlogging
salinization
soil pollution
climate change
soil remediation
fertility

Published Papers (8 papers)

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Research

7 pages, 577 KiB

Open AccessCommunication

Post-Fire Soil Nutrient Dynamics in Seriphium plumosum L. Encroached Semi-Arid Grassland of Gauteng Province, South Africa

by Hosia T. Pule, Julius T. Tjelele and Michelle J. Tedder

Agriculture 2023, 13(10), 1971; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13101971 - 10 Oct 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1193

Abstract

Seriphium plumosum L. is an indigenous unpalatable shrub that occurs in fire-prone semi-arid South African grassland areas, yet research proposes the use of fire to control its encroachment of rangelands. This study investigated the interaction effects of burning and soil depth on components of soil fertility. Soil samples were collected from the surface (<10 cm) and subsurface (>10 ≤ 20 cm) soil, before and after burning in randomly selected paired subplots (25 m × 25 m), with six replicates. Data was analysed as a randomised complete block design, with repeated measures (before and after burning) in a 2 × 2 factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) using generalised linear model (GLM) procedures. Components of soil fertility measured (K, Ca, Mg, Org C, P, pH and TN) showed a significant decrease with increasing soil depth both before and after burning, except for K and P, which were significantly higher in surface soils after burning. The results showed that the response of soil nutrients to fire depends on the temperature tolerance threshold of individual soil nutrient elements. Increasing surface soil available K and P concentrations after burning may improve the conditions for S. plumosum encroachment, with implications for similar environments and species worldwide. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil Degradation and Remediation)

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18 pages, 241991 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessing Spatial Variation and Driving Factors of Available Phosphorus in a Hilly Area (Gaozhou, South China) Using Modeling Approaches and Digital Soil Mapping

by Wenhui Zhang, Liangwei Cheng, Ruitao Xu, Xiaohua He, Weihan Mo and Jianbo Xu

Agriculture 2023, 13(8), 1541; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13081541 - 02 Aug 2023

Viewed by 1066

Abstract

Soil fertility plays a crucial role in crop growth, so it is important to study the spatial distribution and variation of soil fertility for agricultural management and decision-making. However, traditional methods for assessing soil fertility are time-consuming and economically burdensome. Moreover, it is hard to capture the spatial variation of soil properties across continuous geographic space using the conventional methods. As key techniques of digital soil mapping (DSM), spatial interpolation techniques have been widely applied in soil surveys and analysis in recent years, since they can predict soil properties at unknown points in continuous space based on limited sample points. However, further research is needed on spatial interpolation models for DSM in regions with variable climates and complex terrains, which are characterized by strong spatial variation in both environmental variables and soil fertility. In this study, taking a typical hilly area in a subtropical monsoon climate, i.e., Gaozhou, Guangdong Province, China, as an example, the performances of four popular spatial interpolation models (Random Forest (RF), Ordinary Kriging, Inverse Distance Weighting, and Radial Basis Function) for digital soil mapping on available phosphorus (AP) are compared. Based on RF, the spatial variation and its driving factors of the AP of Gaozhou are then analyzed. Furthermore, by selecting three typical truncation lines from different directions, the correlations between environmental variables and AP in different spatial positions are demonstrated. The root mean square error (RMSE) results of the above four models are 32.01, 32.08, 32.74, and 33.08, respectively, which indicate that the RF has a higher interpolation accuracy. Based on the mapping results of RF, the minimum, maximum, and mean values of AP in the study area are 38.90, 95.24, and 64.96 mg/kg, respectively. The high-value areas of AP are mainly distributed in forested and orchard areas, while the low-value areas are primarily found in urban and cultivated areas in the eastern and western regions. Vegetation and topography are identified as the key factors shaping the spatial variations of AP in the study area. Furthermore, the spatial heterogeneity of the influence strength of altitude and EVI is revealed, providing a new direction for further research on DSM in the future, i.e., spatial interpolation models considering the spatial heterogeneity of the influence of environmental variables. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil Degradation and Remediation)

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13 pages, 308 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Soil Quality Assessment in Response to Water Erosion and Mining Activity

by Rocio Vaca, Pedro Del Águila, Gustavo Yañez-Ocampo, Jorge A. Lugo and Nadia De la Portilla-López

Agriculture 2023, 13(7), 1380; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13071380 - 12 Jul 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1134

Abstract

Erosion significantly decreases the depth of a soil, the nutrients available for plants, the organic matter and, consequently, the productivity of the edaphic environment. Due to the above considerations, the objective of this study was to evaluate, through various properties, the quality of two eroded soils, one eroded by water and the other by mining activity, amended with biosolids. The quality for both soils was estimated through the selection of a minimum set of data by means of principal component analysis (PCA) and the subsequent realization of correlations, multiple regressions and finally calculations of normalized values (Vn) of those properties considered as indicators of soil quality. According to the results, inorganic nitrogen (NI) and respiratory activity (RA) were the properties selected as indicators to assess quality. For soil eroded by water and by mining activity, NI presented a low and very low quality, respectively (class 4 and 5 of quality according to the calculation of Vn). The quality of RA in soil eroded by mining extraction was very high (quality class 1 according to Vn), and thus it can be considered an ideal indicator for the evaluation of soil quality due to its sensitivity to anthropogenic changes (mining) in soil. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil Degradation and Remediation)

20 pages, 10297 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Study on the Drying Process and the Influencing Factors of Desiccation Cracking of Cohesive Soda Saline-Alkali Soil in the Songnen Plain, China

by Zhuopeng Zhang, Xiaojie Li, Jianhua Ren and Shuang Zhou

Agriculture 2023, 13(6), 1153; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13061153 - 30 May 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1054

Abstract

The surface of cohesive soda saline-alkali soil in the Songnen Plain of China exhibits obvious desiccation cracking phenomenon during water evaporation. Quantitative research on the process and influencing factors of desiccation cracking are significant for determining the mechanical properties of salt-affected soil, improving the salinization status and the local ecological environment. This study aims to conduct laboratory-controlled cracking experiments on soda saline-alkali soils, and to regularly measure the soil moisture and the cracking status of 40 soil samples. After processing the crack images uniformly, crack characteristics including crack length, crack area, contrast texture feature, and box-counting fractal dimension are extracted. The results indicate that the decrease in soil moisture can be divided into three stages such as fast evaporation stage, slow evaporation stage and stable evaporation stage, and that the evaporation rate shows a linear negative correlation with soil salinity. The measurements also indicate that crack length rapidly increases and reaches stability with a decrease in water content compared with the crack area. The high correlation between different crack characteristics and the soil total salinity (correlation coefficient from 0.44 to 0.95) shows that salt content is the dominant factor affecting the desiccation cracking of soda saline-alkali soil. A multiple linear regression prediction model was finally established based on crack characteristics for different salinity parameters with high prediction accuracy for Na⁺, EC and total salinity (R² > 0.91 and RPD > 2.5) and also certain prediction accuracy for Cl⁻ and CO₃²⁻ (R² > 0.66 and RPD > 1.5). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil Degradation and Remediation)

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21 pages, 3411 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Promising Strains of Hydrocarbon-Oxidizing Pseudomonads with Herbicide Resistance and Plant Growth-Stimulating Properties for Bioremediation of Oil-Contaminated Agricultural Soils

by Tatyana Korshunova, Elena Kuzina, Svetlana Mukhamatdyarova, Yuliyana Sharipova and Milyausha Iskuzhina

Agriculture 2023, 13(6), 1111; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13061111 - 23 May 2023

Viewed by 1123

Abstract

Nowadays, large areas of agricultural land are contaminated with chemical plant-protection products. Agricultural soils are also susceptible to oil pollution as a result of accidents on oil pipelines. Bioremediation of such soils from oil with the help of hydrocarbon-oxidizing bacteria is hindered by the presence of additional pollutants such as herbicides. In this work, seven strains of Pseudomonas were isolated and identified, which showed differences in ability of oil biodegradation (32.7–77.3%). All strains showed resistance to herbicides based on 2,4-D and substances from the class of imidazolinones, possessed phosphate-solubilizing and nitrogen-fixing activity, and produced indolyl-3-acetic acid (305–1627 ng/mL culture liquid). They stimulated the growth of barley and clover in soil with oil, as well as the growth of clover in soil with herbicide. In a vegetative experiment (duration 30 days, initial oil content in soil 2% wt., herbicide based on imazethapyr 0.002% wt.) of barley plants and P. alcaligenes UOM 10 or P. frederiksbergensis UOM 11, oil degradation was 48.1–52.7%, the same strains and clover plants, 37.9–38.6%. The studied bacteria have the potential to be used in the bioremediation of oil-contaminated agricultural soils, including in combination with phytomeliorant plants. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil Degradation and Remediation)

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11 pages, 5500 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Random Forest Modeling of Soil Properties in Saline Semi-Arid Areas

by Azamat Suleymanov, Ilyusya Gabbasova, Mikhail Komissarov, Ruslan Suleymanov, Timur Garipov, Iren Tuktarova and Larisa Belan

Agriculture 2023, 13(5), 976; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13050976 - 28 Apr 2023

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 1958

Abstract

The problem of salinization/spreading of saline soils is becoming more urgent in many regions of the world, especially in context of climate change. The monitoring of salt-affected soils’ properties is a necessary procedure in land management and irrigation planning and is aimed to obtain high crop harvest and reduce degradation processes. In this work, a machine learning method was applied for modeling of the spatial distribution of topsoil (0–20 cm) properties—in particular: soil organic carbon (SOC), pH, and salt content (dry residue). A random forest (RF) machine learning approach was used in combination with environmental variables to predict soil properties in a semi-arid area (Trans-Ural steppe zone). Soil, salinity, and texture maps; topography attributes; and remote sensing data (RSD) were used as predictors. The coefficient of determination (R²) and the root mean square error (RMSE) were used to estimate the performance of the RF model. The cross-validation result showed that the RF model achieved an R² of 0.59 and an RMSE of 0.68 for SOM; 0.36 and 0.65, respectively, for soil pH; and 0.78 and 1.21, respectively for dry residue prediction. The SOC content ranged from 0.8 to 2.8%, with an average value of 1.9%; soil pH ranged from 5.9 to 8.4, with an average of 7.2; dry residue varied greatly from 0.04 to 16.8%, with an average value of 1.3%. A variable importance analysis indicated that remote sensing variables (salinity indices and NDVI) were dominant in the spatial prediction of soil parameters. The importance of RSD for evaluating saline soils and their properties is explained by their absorption characteristics/reflectivity in the visible and near-infrared spectra. Solonchak soils are distinguished by a salt crust on the land surface and, as a result, reduced SOC contents and vegetation biomass. However, the change in saline and non-saline soils over a short distance with mosaic structure of soil cover requires high-resolution RSD or aerial images obtained from unmanned aerial vehicle/drones for successful digital mapping of soil parameters. The presented results provide an effective method to estimate soil properties in saline landscapes for further land management/reclamation planning of degraded soils in arid and semi-arid regions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil Degradation and Remediation)

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21 pages, 5470 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Quantification of Impact of Land Use Systems on Runoff and Soil Loss from Ravine Ecosystem of Western India

by Gopal Lal Meena, Bira Kishore Sethy, Hem Raj Meena, Shakir Ali, Ashok Kumar, Rajive Kumar Singh, Raghuvir Singh Meena, Ram Bhawan Meena, Gulshan Kumar Sharma, Bansi Lal Mina and Kuldeep Kumar

Agriculture 2023, 13(4), 773; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13040773 - 27 Mar 2023

Viewed by 1502

Abstract

Ravine and gully formations are both spectacular and also the worst forms of water-induced soil erosion and have in situ and ex situ impact on geomorphology, hydrology, productivity and environmental security, and they are the root causes of degradation of marginal and adjacent land along with reduced production potential. A long-term (2011–2019) study was conducted on marginal land of the Chambal ravine to assess the impact of six land uses, i.e., Agriculture (T₁—Rainfed Soybean), Agri-horticulture (T₂—Soybean + Manilkara achras), Horti-Pastoral (T₃—Emblica officinalis + Cenchurus ciliaris), Pasture (T₄—C. ciliaris), Silviculture (T₅—Acacia nilotica) and Silvi-pasture (T₆—A. nilotica + C. Ciliaris) on soil properties, runoff interception, sediment trapping and soil loss reduction. The lowest average annual soil loss (4.83 ton ha⁻¹ year⁻¹) and runoff (109.52 mm) were recorded under T₄, while the highest sediment loss (8.09 ton ha⁻¹ year⁻¹) and runoff (136.07 mm), respectively, were under T₅. The runoff coefficient of land uses was in the order of T₃ (20.30%) < T₄ (20.56%) < T₁ (21.95%) < T₂ (22.26%) < T₆ (22.83%) < T₅ (25.54%). The C. ciliaris improved bulk density and recorded lowest in horti-pasture (1.63 ± 0.04 g cm⁻³) followed by pasture (1.66 ± 0.03 g cm⁻³) land use system. The active SOC content in pasture, horti-pasture and silvi-pasture was 0.95, 0.87 and 0.64 times higher, respectively, than agriculture land use. Under pure C. ciliaris cover, resistance to penetration varied from 0.68 to 1.97 MPa, while in silviculture land use, it ranges from 1.19 to 2.90 Mpa. Grass cover had substantial impact on soil loss and runoff reduction, SOC content, soil aggregation and resistance to penetration. In degraded ecosystems, Cenchrus ciliaris can be used alone and in combination with plants for protection of natural resources from water-induced soil erosion, runoff conservation, soil quality improvement and maximization of precipitation water use. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil Degradation and Remediation)

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10 pages, 1682 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessment of Earthworm Viability and Soil Health after Two Years of Raw and Composted De-Inking Paper Sludge Amendment

by Rahma Inès Zoghlami, Wael Toukabri, Khaoula Boudabbous, Sarra Hechmi, Meriem Barbouchi, Houda Oueriemmi, Mohammed Moussa and Haithem Bahri

Agriculture 2023, 13(3), 547; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13030547 - 24 Feb 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1409

Abstract

The improvement of soil fertility properties is a priority for meeting sustainable development goals and world food security. One potential benefit of using paper sludge in agriculture is the reduction of waste and associated environmental impacts. By using paper sludge as a soil amendment, it is possible to divert away this material from landfills and instead use it to improve soil fertility and support the growth of crops. However, it is important to note that paper sludge may contain contaminants harmful to plants and soil health, of which earthworm viability serves as a key indicator. The present investigation aimed to evaluate changes in soil properties after the application of raw and composted de-inking paper sludge for two years. Accordingly, a field study was conducted in Manouba, a semi-arid region of Tunisia with a clay loam soil. The raw de-inking sludge (DS) and composted de-inking paper sludge (DSC) were applied at 30 and 60 t ha⁻¹ and 20 and 40 t ha⁻¹, respectively. Soil treatments were compared to unamended soils (C), to determine the optimal sludge treatment and rate for increasing the soil quality. Soil chemical (soil organic matter SOM, total carbon TC, and nitrogen TN, nutrient soil contents organic matter fractioned), physical (porosity and structural stability), and biological parameters (earthworms viability) were assessed. The results showed an increase of soil OM in the DS and DSC amended soils with the lowest rates (30 and 20 t ha⁻¹). The humic fraction was found to be the dominant form. TC and TN were improved in the DS and DSC amended soils with the highest rates: 60 (DS2) and 40 t ha⁻¹ (DSC2). Phosphorus and potassium were also increased in a dose-dependent manner. However, the soil porosity decreased in all treatments. The composted de-inking sludge was toxic for epigeic species, which could be explained by the use of litter while composting. Overall, the application of DS and DSC at low rates (30 and 20 t ha⁻¹, respectively) might be a promising alternative for improving soil quality and at the same time ensuring the proper management of these wastes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil Degradation and Remediation)

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