Environmental changes in Yellow River Delta with terrace construction and agricultural cropping

Background Crude flats in delta areas are often saline–alkaline and unsuitable for agricultural cropping. In the 1990s, people residing in the Yellow River delta constructed terraces on the flats for agricultural development. Herein, we investigated environmental changes resulting from this agricult...

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Autores principales:	Dongxiao He, Jianmin Chu, Hongxiao Yang
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	PeerJ Inc. 2021
Materias:	Delta Saline land Land use Soil fertility Sustainable agriculture Land degradation Medicine R
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/59ec6702108e4306a5cc573f941860e1
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id	oai:doaj.org-article:59ec6702108e4306a5cc573f941860e1
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:59ec6702108e4306a5cc573f941860e12021-11-13T15:05:21ZEnvironmental changes in Yellow River Delta with terrace construction and agricultural cropping10.7717/peerj.124692167-8359https://doaj.org/article/59ec6702108e4306a5cc573f941860e12021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://peerj.com/articles/12469.pdfhttps://peerj.com/articles/12469/https://doaj.org/toc/2167-8359Background Crude flats in delta areas are often saline–alkaline and unsuitable for agricultural cropping. In the 1990s, people residing in the Yellow River delta constructed terraces on the flats for agricultural development. Herein, we investigated environmental changes resulting from this agricultural development and evaluated whether the current land use is effective and sustainable. Methods We sampled soil and weeds from croplands, terrace slopes, and crude flats within the delta terrace landscape. The measured soil properties included soil salinity, pH, total N, total P, and organic matter in different lands and soil layers: 0–10, 10–20, and 20–30 cm. The surveyed weed characteristics were the biomass of roots and rhizomes, species composition, life form, cover and height. These indices were statistically verified by different land types and soil layers. Results Soil salinity in the terrace crop lands was found to have reduced to <4 g·kg−1, whereas in the crude flats, remained >6 g·kg−1. Soil pH in the terrace croplands was surprisingly increased to >9 ; meanwhile, organic matter content decreased drastically, which is significantly different from that observed in the case of terrace slopes and crude flats. Total N and P content in the terrace crop lands were seemingly unchanged on averages but at the depths >20 cm, they reduced unavoidably. Plant underground organs were relatively scarcer in the croplands than in the other lands. Weeds grew well on the terrace slopes but were insufficient in the croplands. Overall, terrace construction is effective for developing coastal saline flats for agricultural use, but the traditional land use in the Yellow River delta has caused chronic soil degradation that is against a sustainable productive industry.Dongxiao HeJianmin ChuHongxiao YangPeerJ Inc.articleDeltaSaline landLand useSoil fertilitySustainable agricultureLand degradationMedicineRENPeerJ, Vol 9, p e12469 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Delta Saline land Land use Soil fertility Sustainable agriculture Land degradation Medicine R
spellingShingle	Delta Saline land Land use Soil fertility Sustainable agriculture Land degradation Medicine R Dongxiao He Jianmin Chu Hongxiao Yang Environmental changes in Yellow River Delta with terrace construction and agricultural cropping
description	Background Crude flats in delta areas are often saline–alkaline and unsuitable for agricultural cropping. In the 1990s, people residing in the Yellow River delta constructed terraces on the flats for agricultural development. Herein, we investigated environmental changes resulting from this agricultural development and evaluated whether the current land use is effective and sustainable. Methods We sampled soil and weeds from croplands, terrace slopes, and crude flats within the delta terrace landscape. The measured soil properties included soil salinity, pH, total N, total P, and organic matter in different lands and soil layers: 0–10, 10–20, and 20–30 cm. The surveyed weed characteristics were the biomass of roots and rhizomes, species composition, life form, cover and height. These indices were statistically verified by different land types and soil layers. Results Soil salinity in the terrace crop lands was found to have reduced to <4 g·kg−1, whereas in the crude flats, remained >6 g·kg−1. Soil pH in the terrace croplands was surprisingly increased to >9 ; meanwhile, organic matter content decreased drastically, which is significantly different from that observed in the case of terrace slopes and crude flats. Total N and P content in the terrace crop lands were seemingly unchanged on averages but at the depths >20 cm, they reduced unavoidably. Plant underground organs were relatively scarcer in the croplands than in the other lands. Weeds grew well on the terrace slopes but were insufficient in the croplands. Overall, terrace construction is effective for developing coastal saline flats for agricultural use, but the traditional land use in the Yellow River delta has caused chronic soil degradation that is against a sustainable productive industry.
format	article
author	Dongxiao He Jianmin Chu Hongxiao Yang
author_facet	Dongxiao He Jianmin Chu Hongxiao Yang
author_sort	Dongxiao He
title	Environmental changes in Yellow River Delta with terrace construction and agricultural cropping
title_short	Environmental changes in Yellow River Delta with terrace construction and agricultural cropping
title_full	Environmental changes in Yellow River Delta with terrace construction and agricultural cropping
title_fullStr	Environmental changes in Yellow River Delta with terrace construction and agricultural cropping
title_full_unstemmed	Environmental changes in Yellow River Delta with terrace construction and agricultural cropping
title_sort	environmental changes in yellow river delta with terrace construction and agricultural cropping
publisher	PeerJ Inc.
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/59ec6702108e4306a5cc573f941860e1
work_keys_str_mv	AT dongxiaohe environmentalchangesinyellowriverdeltawithterraceconstructionandagriculturalcropping AT jianminchu environmentalchangesinyellowriverdeltawithterraceconstructionandagriculturalcropping AT hongxiaoyang environmentalchangesinyellowriverdeltawithterraceconstructionandagriculturalcropping
_version_	1718430257608916992

Environmental changes in Yellow River Delta with terrace construction and agricultural cropping

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