Browsing by Author "Shakeel Ahmad Bhat"

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Carbon Footprint in Eroded Soils and Its Impact on Soil Health
(Springer Singapore, 2019) Mehraj U. Din Dar; Shakeel Ahmad Bhat; Ram Swaroop Meena; Aamir Ishaq Shah
Climate change, soil degradation, and losses in the biodiversity have led the soil to become one of the most vulnerable resources on the earth. The tremendous scientific advancement made until now has made possible through the protection, monitoring, and surveillance of soil resources at national and global levels. However protection and management of soil resources still have to face the complex challenges, which prevent the effective planning of policies in the sector and implementation, that vary generally from place to place. Though, there is still not sufficient support for the protection and sustainable management of the soil resources in the world. The soils contain appreciable amount of terrestrial carbon (c), which plays an essential role in its balance at global level through the regulation of dynamic, biogeochemical processes and exchange of greenhouse gases (GHGs) with the atmosphere. Soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks are estimated to be 1500 ± 230 Gt C in the first meter of land, almost twice the atmospheric 828 Gt C as carbon dioxide (CO2). Burning of fossil fuels, the use of the earth and change of land cover (which includes agriculture), is the largest anthropogenic source of C in the atmosphere and within the agriculture systems, the land have a global source of GHGs. These processes and emissions are highly influenced by the use of land pattern, land use change, plant cover, and soil management. The SOC stocks in the upper layers of the soil (800 Gt C in 0-40) cm) are particularly sensitive and receptive to such changes in land use and management, which provides the chance to influence the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. This can be attained by keeping existing soil C stocking soils with high soil organic C content or by soil C sequestration. The aim of this chapter is to produce the obtainable information of C stocks in various types of soils and agroclimatic zones. Soil erosion/soil degradation and main management operations and strategies influence C sequestration, and vastscale policy interventions are needed in Indian environment. © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020.
Soil erosion and management strategies
(Springer Singapore, 2019) Shakeel Ahmad Bhat; Mehraj U. Din Dar; Ram Swaroop Meena
Rising population and decreasing cultivable land pose a great challenge to modern agriculture. The agricultural production has to be balanced with the ever-increasing population to meet the demands of food supply. These changes have led to intensification of agriculture resulting into conversion of natural vegetation areas to agricultural land. This continued overexploitation of land resources in combination with climatic factors results in removal of the top fertile layer of soil. On the global scale, the period of the earliest significant change in land use corresponds to a first wave of the soil erosion. The areas with human intervention have high rate of soil erosion of 2.92 tha-1 year-1. In order to strike a balance between agricultural output and conservation, soil erosion control becomes very essential component. The control and prevention of soil erosion necessitate the development of an integral soil erosion control system with the incorporating methods based on the engineering, agricultural cultivation technology, law enforcement, biological methods, land planning, and management. Soil conservation structures along with advanced soil loss models would be prerequisite toward land management. This chapter addresses the dynamics of erosion and agricultural sustainability through different soil management strategies, which poses challenges similar to those of quantification of future changes in climate or agricultural systems. The chapter is focused on the analyzing and quantifying the effects of changes in land use and management of the eroded soils in the agriculture. © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019.