Soil Atterberg Limits and Consistency Indices as Influenced by Land Use and Slope Position in Western Iran

Atterberg limits and consistency indices are used for classifications of cohesive(fine-grained) soils in relation with compaction and tillage practices. They also provide information for interpreting several soil mechanical and physical properties such as shear strength, compressibility, shrinkage and swelling potentials. Although, several studies have been conducted regarding the land use effects on various soil mechanical properties, little is known about the effects of land use and slope positions on Atterberg limits and consistency indices. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of land use and slope position on selected soil physical and chemical properties, Atterberg limits and consistency indices in hilly region of western Iran. Three land uses including dryland farming, irrigated farming and pasture and four slope positions(i.e., shoulder, backslope, footslope, and toeslope) were used for soil samplings. One hundred eleven soil samples were collected from the surface soil(0-10 cm). Selected physical and chemical properties, liquid limit(LL), plastic limit(PL) and shrinkage limit(SL) were measured using the standard methods; and consistency indices including plastic index(PI), friability index(FI), shrinkage index(SI) and soil activity(A=PI/clay) were calculated. The results showed that irrigated farming significantly increased organic matter content(OM) and OM/clay ratio, and decreased bulk density(ρb) and relative bulk density(ρb-rel) as a result of higher biomass production and plant residues added to the soil compared to other land uses. Except for sand content, OM, ρb, cation exchange capacity(CEC) and calcium carbonate equivalent(CCE), slope position significantly affected soil physical and chemical properties. The highest values of silt, OM/clay and CEC/clay were found in the toeslope position, predominantly induced by soil redistribution within the landscape. The use of complexed(COC)- noncomplexed organic carbon(NCOC) concept indicated that majority of the studied soils were located below the saturation line and the OM in the soils was mainly in the COC form. The LL, PI, FI and A showed significant differences among the land uses; the highest values belonged to the irrigated farming due to high biomass production and plant residues returned to the soils. Furthermore, slope position significantly affected the Atterberg limits and consistency indices except for SL. The highest values of LL, PI, SI and A were observed in the toeslope position probably because of higher OM and CEC/clay due to greater amount of expandable phyllosilicate clays. Overall, soils on the toeslope under irrigated farming with high LL and SI and low values of FI need careful tillage management to avoid soil compaction.

The Effect of Some Soil Physical and Chemical Properties on Soil Aggregate Stability in Different Locations in Sulaimani and Halabja Governorate

Some soil properties were studied in relation soil aggregate along a climatologically region and different crop land use in the Northeast of Sulaimani City/Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Five locations were selected along these regions ranging from semiarid to sub-humid climatologically conditions. The soil physical, chemical properties, aggregate stability and size distribution were analyzed. A mean-weight-diameter (MWD) value was determined on 5 soils, which was the sum of the percentage of soil on each sieve (6, 3, 1.5, 0.75, 0.375 and 0.125 mm). The results of the measurements could evaluated with linear correlation coefficients for the relationships between aggregate stability (MWD) and soil physical and chemical properties of the different crop land use. The correlation coefficient for the relationship between aggregate stability and organic matter was highly significant (P < 0.0l%) which is in agreement with the findings of [1]. Generally large aggregates (large 6, 3, 3 - 1.5 mm) were present in highest proportions in the most semiarid of the studied areas. Aggregates 0.75 - 0.125 mm were positively correlated to fine, very fine sand and silt fractions and to organic matter. Stability of aggregates showed a positive correlation with clay content and organic matter content, while the carbonate content was strongly correlated with aggregate stability. The land use history affecting soil overlaps the pattern of climatological situations and cultivated crop lands and has to be taken into account. Aggregate size distribution and stability can be used as indicator of soil conservation and productivity.

Recent leveling off of vegetation greenness and primary production reveals the increasing soil water limitations on the greening Earth

Global vegetation photosynthesis and productivity have increased substantially since the 1980s,but this trend is heterogeneous in both time and space.Here,we categorize the secular trend in global vegetation greenness into sustained greening,sustained browning and greening-to-browning.We found that by 2016,increased global vegetation greenness had begun to level off,with the area of browning increasing in the last decade,reaching 39.0 million km^(2)(35.9%of the world’s vegetated area).This area is larger than the area with sustained increasing growth(27.8 million km^(2),26.4%);thus,12.0%±3.1%(0.019±0.004 NDVI a^(-1))of the previous earlier increase has been offset since 2010(2010–2016,P<0.05).Global gross primary production also leveled off,following the trend in vegetation greenness in time and space.This leveling off was caused by increasing soil water limitations due to the spatial expansion of drought,whose impact dominated over the impacts of temperature and solar radiation.This response of global gross primary production to soil water limitation was not identified by land submodels within Earth system models.Our results provide empirical evidence that global vegetation greenness and primary production are offset by water stress and suggest that as global warming continues,land submodels may overestimate the world’s capacity to take up carbon with global vegetation greening.

Heavy metal pollution increases soil microbial carbon limitation:Evidence from ecological enzyme stoichiometry

Heavy metals can exist in soil for a long time and seriously affect soil quality.The coexistence of various heavy metal pollutants leads to biotoxicity and alters the activity of microorganisms.Soil microbial metabolism plays an important role in nutrient cycling and biochemical processes of soil ecosystem.However,the effects of heavy metal contamination on microbial metabolism in soil are still unclear.This study aims to reveal the responses of microbial metabolic limitation to heavy metals using extracellular enzyme stoichiometry,and further to evaluate the potential impacts of heavy metal pollution on soil nutrient cycle.The results showed that soil microbial metabolism reflected by the ecoenzymatic activities had a significant response to soil heavy metals pollution.The metabolism was limited by soil carbon(C)and phosphorus(P)under varied heavy metal levels,and the increase of heavy metal concentration significantly increased the microbial C limitation,while had no effect on microbial P limitation.Microorganisms may increase the energy investment in metabolism to resist heavy metal stress and thus induce C release.The results suggest that energy metabolism selected by microorganisms in response to long-term heavy metal stress could increase soil C release,which is not conducive to the soil C sequestration.Our study emphasizes that ecoenzymatic stoichiometry could be a promising methodology for evaluating the toxicity of heavy metal pollution and its ecological effects on nutrient cycling.