Assessment of Institutional and Legal Framework for Sustainable Land Use Management Practices in Ashi River Watershed,China

Nonpoint source(NPS)pollutants resulting from land degradation(LD)have been a key influential factor on the deterioration of water quality.Consequently,sustainable land use management(SLM)practices have been employed to reduce the impacts of LD globally.However,the adoption of SLM practices is often not effective to protect water resources despite its capability of improving water quality.Empirically,evidence shows that activities of land users directly influence SLM practices and NPS pollution of water resources in watersheds,but invariably this has not been clearly understood.Understanding how SLM practices adoption could prevent NPS pollution of water resources in watershed is a necessity.Therefore,the primary aim of the investigation is to comprehend the status of SLM practices with the legal framework supporting the adoption of such practices in the Ashi River watershed.A survey instrument involving structured questionnaire was implemented to collect data.A randomly based lottery method was applied to sample information from 150 land users in two control units’communities.Descriptive and inferential statistics was used to analyze the data.This research revealed that there is low adoption of SLM practices of the study site.The low adoption is due to weak capacity building and enforcement of regulations in the watershed.Occupation and age of the residents are the strongest predictors of SLM adoption rate.Residents connected with farming are more sensitive to the adoption status of SLM.It is our recommendation that policy makers should ensure capacity building,and enforcement of regulations can specifically compel farmers to adopt SLM technologies.This approach would complement other strategies to solve the NPS pollution issue of Ashi River.

Spatial and Temporal Habitat Use by GPS Collared Male Cheetahs in Modified Bushland Habitat

Cheetahs and other apex predators are threatened by human-wildlife conflict and habitat degradation. Bush encroachment creates one of the biggest forms of habitat change, thus it is important to understand the impact this has on habitat use. We investigated habitat preferences of five male cheetahs in Namibian farmlands degraded by bush encroachment. Cheetahs were tracked using satellite based Global System for Mobile (GSM) collars providing a higher resolution on ranging behavior. We aimed to investigate: 1) habitat characteristics;2) evidence for habitat selection;3) temporal activity partitioning;and 4) whether revisits to locations were related to habitat type. There were differences in habitat characteristics, showing that cheetahs were able to utilise different habitats. Fecal pellet counts revealed that warthog, oryx, scrub hare and kudu were most abundant. The cheetahs spent more time in high visibility shrubland, suggesting they selected rewarding patches within predominantly bush-encroached landscapes. The usage in marginal habitat was strikingly influenced by habitat type, with both previously cleared and open vegetated areas showing high proportions in edge use. Individuals exhibited significant temporal activity partitioning, showing peaks between late afternoon and early morning hours. This finding could be key to managing human-wildlife conflict by showing that increased protection such as the use of herders and livestock guarding dogs should be used as mitigation methods to minimize the impact of cheetah specific temporal patterns at all times as defined in this research. Visits to the same locations were not correlated to habitat type;revisits may be dictated by other reasons such as social interaction, prey density or avoidance of other predators. Findings from this study will help build existing knowledge on the effects bush encroachment has on cheetah habitat preference.

Measures for Management of Land Use Master Plan Released

On May 8,2017,the Measures for Management of Land Use Master Plan was released for enforcement by the Ministry of Land and Resources.The Measures clearly points out that a land use master plan is an essential part of the national spatial planning system and an important basis for implementing land use modes control and management,

Assessment of land use change and its effect on soil carbon stock using multitemporal satellite data in semiarid region of Rajasthan, India

Background:Land use change plays a vital role in global carbon dynamics.Understanding land use change impact on soil carbon stock is crucial for implementing land use management to increase carbon stock and reducing carbon emission.Therefore,the objective of our study was to determine land use change and to assess its effect on soil carbon stock in semi-arid part of Rajasthan,India.Landsat temporal satellite data of Pushkar valley region of Rajasthan acquired on 1993,2003,and 2014 were analyzed to assess land use change.Internal trading of land use was depicted throughmatrices.Soil organic carbon(SOC)stock was calculated for soil to a depth of 30 cm in each land use type in 2014 using field data collection.The SOC stock for previous years was estimated using stock change factor.The effect of land use change on SOC stock was determined by calculating change in SOC stock(t/ha)by deducting the base-year SOC stock from the final year stock of a particular land use conversion.Results:The total area under agricultural lands was increased by 32.14%while that under forest was decreased by 23.14%during the time period of 1993–2014.Overall land use change shows that in both the periods(1993–2003 and 2003–2014),7%of forest area was converted to agricultural land and about 15%changes occurred among agricultural land.In 1993–2003,changes among agricultural land led to maximum loss of soil carbon,i.e.,4.88 Mt C and during 2003–2014,conversion of forest to agricultural land led to loss in 3.16 Mt C.Conclusion:There was a continuous decrease in forest area and increase in cultivated area in each time period.Land use change led to alteration in carbon equity in soil due to change or loss in vegetation.Overall,we can conclude that the internal trading of land use area during the 10-year period(1993–2003)led to net loss of SOC stock by 8.29 Mt C.Similarly,land use change during 11-year period(2003–2014)caused net loss of SOC by 2.76 Mt C.Efforts should be made to implement proper land use management practices to enhance the SOC content.

Carbon fluxes in soil:long-term sequestration in deeper soil horizons

Terrestrial ecosystems represent the second largest carbon reservoir, and the C balance in terrestrial ecosystems can be directly impacted by human activities such as agricultural management practices and land-use changes. This paper focuses on the C-sequestration in soil. Although many studies showed that the concentration of SOC is much higher in the shallow soils (0-30 cm), the deeper horizons represent a much greater mass of soil and represent a huge C-storage pool. The process of preferential retention of more strongly adsorbing components, along with competitive displacement of weakly binding components are the key processes that enhance the movement of organic carbon to deeper soil horizons. DOC represents the most dynamic part of organic carbon in soils, and thus can be used as a timely indicator of the short-term change of C-sequestration. Long-term experiments have demonstrated that higher SOC levels in shallow soils would lead to increased fluxes of DOC to deeper horizons, but more data on a wider range of soils and treatment strategies are needed to fully evaluate the linkages between changes in SOC in shallow soil, vertical fluxes of DOC to deeper soil horizons, and enhanced C-inventories in deeper, slow-turnover SOC pools.

DROUGHT DISASTERS AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE DURING PAST 30 YEARS IN AFRICA

A number of very serious drough disasters occurred in many regions of Aftica during past 30 years. It is commonly considered that they are among the most serious disasters after the World War II. The basic situation of the droughs and drough disasters are introduced briefly, and the main causes resulting 1i drought disasters are analysed in the paper. The lack of rainfall is one of the factors producing the drough disasters in Africa, but it is not the real one. From environmental viewpoints, the drough disasters in Africa resulted from unsuitable land use and management by man, and in essence they are the results of man-made environmental disturbance. Finally, the strategy for preventing drought disasters in Africa is suggested.

Managed grassland alters soil N dynamics and N2O emissions in temperate steppe

Reclamation of degraded grasslands as managed grasslands has been increasingly accelerated in recent years in China. Land use change affects soil nitrogen（N） dynamics and nitrous oxide（N2O） emissions. However, it remains unclear how large-scale grassland reclamation will impact the grassland ecosystem as a whole. Here, we investigated the effects of the conversion from native to managed grasslands on soil N dynamics and N2O emissions by field experiments in Hulunber in northern China. Soil（0-10 cm）, nitrate（NO3-）,ammonium（NH4＋）, and microbial N were measured in plots in a temperate steppe（Leymus chinensis grassland） and two managed grasslands（Medicago sativa and Bromus inermis grasslands） in 2011 and 2012. The results showed conversion of L. chinensis grassland to M.sativa or B. inermis grasslands decreased concentrations of NO3--N, but did not change NH4-N . Soil microbial N was slightly decreased by the conversion of L. chinensis grassland to M.sativa, but increased by the conversion to B. inermis. The conversion of L. chinensis grassland to M. sativa（i.e., a legume grass） increased N2O emissions by 26.2%, while the conversion to the B. inermis（i.e., a non-legume grass） reduced N2O emissions by 33.1%. The conversion from native to managed grasslands caused large created variations in soil NO3-＋-N and NH4-N concentrations. Net N mineralization rates did not change significantly in growing season or vegetation type, but to net nitrification rate. These results provide evidence on how reclamation may impact the grassland ecosystem in terms of N dynamics and N2O emissions.