Most of the tillage erosion studies have focused on the effect of tractor-plough tillage on soil translocation and soil loss. Only recently, have a few studies contributed to the understanding of tillage erosion by manual tillage. Furthermore, little is known about the impact of tillage erosion in hilly areas of the humid sub-tropics. This study on tillage erosion by hoeing was conducted on a purple soil (Regosols) of the steep land, in Jianyang County, Sichuan Province, southwestern China (30°24′N and 104°35′E) using the physical tracer method.
The effects of hoeing tillage on soil translocation on hillslopes are quite evident. The tillage transport coefficients were 26–38 kg m−1 per tillage pass and 121–175 kg m−1 per tillage pass respectively for k3- and k4-values. Given that there was a typical downslope parcel length of 15 m and two times of tillage per year in this area, the tillage erosion rates on the 4–43% hillslopes reached 48–151 Mg ha−1 per year. The downslope soil translocation is closely related to slope gradient. Lateral soil translocation by such tillage is also obvious though it is lower than downslope soil translocation. Strong downslope translocation accounts for thin soil layers and the exposure of parent materials/rocks at the ridge tops and on convexities in the hilly areas. Deterioration in soil quality and therefore reduction in plant productivity due to tillage-induced erosion would be evident at the ridge tops and convex shoulders. 相似文献
Communal rangeland management policies in Botswana and Zimbabwe are based on incorrect technical assumptions about the stability of semiarid rangeland, the nature of rangeland degradation, and the benefits of destocking. Consequently, inappropriate policies, stressing the need to destock and stabilise the rangelands, are pursued. Acknowledgement of the great instability but intrinsic resilience of rangeland would encourage the Governments to more favourably regard the opportunistic stocking strategies of the agro-pastoralists of the Communal Areas. However, degradation of rangelands is occurring, although at varying rates. This justifies the promotion of a ‘tracking strategy’, in which livestock densities are encouraged to follow, more closely that at present, variations in rainfall. The establishment of grazing territories controlled by specific ‘communities’ may be a prerequisite for the promotion of the tracking strategy, and for communal rangeland management and improvement. However, the establishment of such territories must take into account social equity, institutional problems and transaction costs, as well as spatial and temporal variation in rangeland resources. 相似文献
This paper focuses on understanding human impact on landscape. Both ecological and human practices are analysed as interacting
processes. An agent-based model integrating biological and historical knowledge is used to analyse the pattern of Scots Pine
encroachment in a French Mediterranean upland. In the STIPA model, pine trees are autonomous agents and a cellular automaton
simulates land-use. We test the effects of shifting cultivation on tree establishment at the landscape scale. This allows
us to understand how agropastoral practices patterned this area from the 17th to 19th century: simulations show the importance
of shifting cultivation in limiting woodland progression. Fallow duration linked to environmental heterogeneity is a significant
factor for explaining pine dynamics and landscape patterning at the scale of the study region. We put this result in perspective
with current rangeland management policies that often consider grazing as the most relevant tool for open landscape maintenance.
Our results also show the importance of taking into account time-scale effects when linking landscape patterns to agricultural
systems. 相似文献
Recent quantitative site-based monitoring and qualitative aerial and ground traverses provide contrasting assessments of the
health of much of the arid shrublands of Western Australia extensively grazed by livestock (‘rangelands’). Although these
results seem incompatible, we explain the apparent contradictions based on landscape succession processes operating at multiple
levels of ecological organisation. Specifically, we suggest that the intact areas in which site-based monitoring is conducted
are contracting as catchment canalisation and desiccation increase. However, the impacts of these processes have not yet become
manifest at the site scale. The site-based system addresses important regional questions. These relate to the large, relatively
intact areas away from most active surface flows, which should be a focus for resource conservation, given practical limits
to repairing widespread degradation with low management inputs. We provide a complementary set of questions to provide a more
comprehensive audit of rangeland dynamics in the context of underlying hierarchical landscape patterns and processes that
might threaten intact areas. We recognise the need to match questions and levels of ecological organisation and the implications
these have for sampling. We also recognise the difficulty in producing concise statements of change for clients when reporting
on complex ecological issues and processes. Without a clearly articulated, and well understood, hierarchical model of pattern
and process within which apparently contradictory findings can be reported meaningfully, policy makers may be confused by
the results, with the consequent risk of policy inaction. 相似文献