Soil and water loss from natural and cultivated slopes in Dharabi watershed
Journal Title: Journal of Biodiversity and Environmental Sciences (JBES) - Year 2015, Vol 7, Issue 5
Abstract
Land use is one of the main factors affecting erosion. Present study was carried out at runoff plots in the Dharabi watershed in Chakwal Pakistan for two years. Soil and water loss from a cultivated slope use and an undisturbed slope having natural cover was evaluated to ascertain the impact of conversion of natural slopes into cultivated sloping terraces. A relatively steep slope and a gentle slope having natural vegetation were compared with a gentle slope on cultivated terrace with existing cropping pattern. Significance was checked by Kruskal-Wallis test and pair wise comparisons of water loss from all land uses were done using Mann-Whitney U and Wilcoxin tests. Cultivated slope produced highest soil loss (8.96 Mg ha-1) annually as compared to both undisturbed gentle and steep slopes, viz., 2.08 and 4.66 Mg ha-1 respectively. Cultivated slope produced 107 mm of average annual runoff as compared to 89.7 mm from natural steeper slope and 56.5 mm from gentle natural slope. Annual runoff coefficient increased from 13.9% to 16.7% with conversion of steeper grassland into cultivated land use. Soil and water losses from cultivated slope were higher despite the fact that cultivated slope had lesser slope gradient than undisturbed natural slope. This suggested that cultivated land use i.e. cropland is capable of producing more soil and water loss as compared to natural grassland. The outcome of the study would help making policy decisions regarding the land use change and its downstream impacts.
Authors and Affiliations
Muhammad Nadeem Iqbal, Ghulam Jilani, Akhtar Ali, Safdar Ali, Muhammad Ansar, Irfan Aziz, Muhammad Rafiq Sajjad
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP38662
- DOI -
- Views 136
- Downloads 0
Ecotaxonomic studies of some filamentous members of Cyanophycota in four Districts of Punjab, Pakistan
Fifty nine species of blue-green algae belonging to nine genera and two families were collected from four different districts of Punjab, Pakistan. These districts are Gujranwala, Gujrat, Sialkot and Narowal. The collecte...
Assessment of gastrointestinal parasites in pit latrine samples from majjini mohallah valley gilgit, Pakistan
Intestinal parasitic infections represent a public health problem in World specifically in developing countries. Where numerous environmental and socioeconomic factors have been identified to be main cause for the cont...
Analysis and interpretation of community-level physiological profiles in microbial ecology for some locations in Montenegro
The microorganisms play a significant role in aquatic ecosystems and in rivers and lake ecosystems as well. The present study aimed at assessment of impact on chemical residues and radicals and microorganism. For the fir...
Assessment of morphological and geological environment of manganese containing area in South West of Côte d'Ivoire
The vast majority of manganese indices in the southern Ivorian are closely associated with the birimian formations. Manganese containing formations are mainly located in the upper part of the birimian, particularly in...
Determining the best statistical models for estimating the forage yield of Atriplex canescens (Purush) Nut. in Kahrizak area (Iran)
Determining the grazing capacity of pastures and estimating the yield of pasture plants is one of the most essential cases in planning and managing of pastures. One of the methods for estimating the yield of pasture pl...