Impact of Short-Term Cultivation on Some Selected Properties of Sandy Soil in an Arid Environment
Soil management is recognized to have an impact on soil quality attributes. Depending on the management approach, this impact can either degrade or improve soil quality. There is a severe shortage of information on the impacts of cultivation on sandy soil properties in arid desert regions. Therefore...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-10-01
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| Series: | Soil Systems |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2571-8789/6/4/82 |
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| author | Salman A. H. Selmy Salah H. Abd Al-Aziz Ahmed G. Ibrahim Raimundo Jiménez-Ballesta |
| author_facet | Salman A. H. Selmy Salah H. Abd Al-Aziz Ahmed G. Ibrahim Raimundo Jiménez-Ballesta |
| author_sort | Salman A. H. Selmy |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Soil management is recognized to have an impact on soil quality attributes. Depending on the management approach, this impact can either degrade or improve soil quality. There is a severe shortage of information on the impacts of cultivation on sandy soil properties in arid desert regions. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the short-term cultivation effects (5 years) on the properties’ changes of coarse-textured soil in an arid desert region in western Assiut Governorate, Egypt. The current study was conducted on soils sampled at four depth intervals, namely 0–10, 10–20, 20–30, and 30–40 cm, from both cultivated and uncultivated soils, using a systematic sampling grid (10 × 10 m), to investigate the potential impacts of the cultivation process on six soil attributes. Each land use was represented by an area of 0.5 ha (50 × 100 m). A total of 160 composite soil samples (at all depths) were collected from both soils and analyzed for their physical and chemical properties, employing standard laboratory procedures. The data were statistically and geostatistically analyzed to compare the results and map the spatial distributions of the selected soil properties. The results revealed that cultivation had a considerable positive impact on most of the properties of cultivated soil compared to those of uncultivated soil (virgin land). The findings also showed that the available phosphorus levels in cultivated soil were higher than in virgin soil by 16, 9, 8.5, and 6 folds, with increases in organic matter content of 16.8, 12.4, 11.9, and 7.9 times at depths of 0–10, 10–20, 20–30, and 30–40 cm, respectively. Furthermore, compared to virgin soil, cultivated soil exhibited a salinity reduction of −8.9%, −56.4%, −66.3%, and −71.8%, at depths of 0–10, 10–20, 20–30, and 30–40 cm, respectively. Moreover, some other properties of the cultivated soil improved, particularly in the surface soil layers, such as pH reduction, CaCO<sub>3</sub> decline, and CEC increase, while the soil texture grade did not change. Therefore, continuous monitoring of the effects of diverse soil management strategies in the short term assists in the understanding of the ongoing changes in soil physical and chemical characteristics, which is critical for maintaining satisfactory soil quality and sustainable soil productivity in arid lands. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T15:51:03Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ddc79a53b2864312aa3da813f51ac730 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2571-8789 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T15:51:03Z |
| publishDate | 2022-10-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Soil Systems |
| spelling | doaj.art-ddc79a53b2864312aa3da813f51ac7302023-11-24T18:03:16ZengMDPI AGSoil Systems2571-87892022-10-01648210.3390/soilsystems6040082Impact of Short-Term Cultivation on Some Selected Properties of Sandy Soil in an Arid EnvironmentSalman A. H. Selmy0Salah H. Abd Al-Aziz1Ahmed G. Ibrahim2Raimundo Jiménez-Ballesta3Department of Soils and Water, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Assiut 71526, EgyptDepartment of Soils and Water, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Assiut 71526, EgyptDepartment of Soils and Water, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Assiut 71526, EgyptDepartment of Geology and Geochemistry, Autonomous University of Madrid, 28019 Madrid, SpainSoil management is recognized to have an impact on soil quality attributes. Depending on the management approach, this impact can either degrade or improve soil quality. There is a severe shortage of information on the impacts of cultivation on sandy soil properties in arid desert regions. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the short-term cultivation effects (5 years) on the properties’ changes of coarse-textured soil in an arid desert region in western Assiut Governorate, Egypt. The current study was conducted on soils sampled at four depth intervals, namely 0–10, 10–20, 20–30, and 30–40 cm, from both cultivated and uncultivated soils, using a systematic sampling grid (10 × 10 m), to investigate the potential impacts of the cultivation process on six soil attributes. Each land use was represented by an area of 0.5 ha (50 × 100 m). A total of 160 composite soil samples (at all depths) were collected from both soils and analyzed for their physical and chemical properties, employing standard laboratory procedures. The data were statistically and geostatistically analyzed to compare the results and map the spatial distributions of the selected soil properties. The results revealed that cultivation had a considerable positive impact on most of the properties of cultivated soil compared to those of uncultivated soil (virgin land). The findings also showed that the available phosphorus levels in cultivated soil were higher than in virgin soil by 16, 9, 8.5, and 6 folds, with increases in organic matter content of 16.8, 12.4, 11.9, and 7.9 times at depths of 0–10, 10–20, 20–30, and 30–40 cm, respectively. Furthermore, compared to virgin soil, cultivated soil exhibited a salinity reduction of −8.9%, −56.4%, −66.3%, and −71.8%, at depths of 0–10, 10–20, 20–30, and 30–40 cm, respectively. Moreover, some other properties of the cultivated soil improved, particularly in the surface soil layers, such as pH reduction, CaCO<sub>3</sub> decline, and CEC increase, while the soil texture grade did not change. Therefore, continuous monitoring of the effects of diverse soil management strategies in the short term assists in the understanding of the ongoing changes in soil physical and chemical characteristics, which is critical for maintaining satisfactory soil quality and sustainable soil productivity in arid lands.https://www.mdpi.com/2571-8789/6/4/82arid landscultivated landcultivation-induced changesland-usesoil depthssoil reclamation |
| spellingShingle | Salman A. H. Selmy Salah H. Abd Al-Aziz Ahmed G. Ibrahim Raimundo Jiménez-Ballesta Impact of Short-Term Cultivation on Some Selected Properties of Sandy Soil in an Arid Environment Soil Systems arid lands cultivated land cultivation-induced changes land-use soil depths soil reclamation |
| title | Impact of Short-Term Cultivation on Some Selected Properties of Sandy Soil in an Arid Environment |
| title_full | Impact of Short-Term Cultivation on Some Selected Properties of Sandy Soil in an Arid Environment |
| title_fullStr | Impact of Short-Term Cultivation on Some Selected Properties of Sandy Soil in an Arid Environment |
| title_full_unstemmed | Impact of Short-Term Cultivation on Some Selected Properties of Sandy Soil in an Arid Environment |
| title_short | Impact of Short-Term Cultivation on Some Selected Properties of Sandy Soil in an Arid Environment |
| title_sort | impact of short term cultivation on some selected properties of sandy soil in an arid environment |
| topic | arid lands cultivated land cultivation-induced changes land-use soil depths soil reclamation |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2571-8789/6/4/82 |
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