ERODIBILITY POTENTIALS OF SOILS OF DIFFERENT PARENT MATERIALS UNDER DIFFERENT LAND USES IN ABIA STATE, SOUTH EASTERN, NIGERIA

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ABSTRACT

Erodibility potentials of soils of different parent materials under different land uses in Abia State, South Eastern Nigeria were studied. Soil samples were collected from four different land uses which are oil palm plantation, forest, arable crop land and fallow land, located at Umudike, Bende, Ameke and Owerrinta respectively. The experiment was a  4 x 4 x 3 factorial experiment in a Randomized Complete Block Design with five replications.  The factors include the four locations (Umudike, Bende, Owerrinta and Ameke), the four land uses (oil palm plantation, forest, arable crop land and fallow) and three depths (0-15, 15-30 and 30-45cm). The soil samples were analysed for their physical, chemical and mineralogical properties. The data obtained were subjected to Analysis of Variance, regression and correlation  analysis. The erodibility factors (k) of the soils were 0.186, 0.157, 0.124 and 0.114 for sandstone, shale, alluvium and coastal plain sands, respectively. The erodibility factors of the land uses were 0.272, 0.155, 0.099 and 0.044 for arable farm, fallow, oil palm and forest respectively. The arable farm had the highest k value while the lowest was observed in the forest land. Regarding Gerald’s erodibility indices, the soils of shale, alluvium, and coastal plain sands were in group II which were well drained soils in sandy grade free material. The soil of sandstone (0.186) was in group III which was graded loams and silt loam.  The erodibility of forest land (0.044) and oil palm (0.099) were in group I which indicated moderate erodibility. The erodibility of the soils under fallow (0.155) fell in group II and the soils of the arable crop (0.272) were in group III. There were significant differences (p≤ 0.05) in estimated soil loss among the soils. The estimated soil losses of the soils were 382.01, 340.32, 337.89 and 267.97 tons/ha/yr for shale, sandstone, alluvium and coastal plain sands respectively. The estimated annual soil losses were 562.95, 340.33, 250.42 and 147.57 tons/ha/yr for arable farm, fallow, oil palm and forest, respectively. The minerals identified include quartz, hematite, magnetite, kaolinite, microcline, albite, iroxide, and montmorrilonite. Most of the minerals were primary minerals especially fieldspars. The soils also contained some oxides of iron. The soils were dominated by quartz and kaolinite. The soils from alluvium parent material had montemorrillonite in reasonable quanitity. The presence of quartz and kaolinites showed that the soils were highly weathered and leached. The high erodibility observed from the study may be due to unsustainable land use which destroyed vegetative cover, reduced soil structural stability and organic matter content thereby making the soil very susceptible to erosive forces.







TABLE OF CONTENTS


Title page                                                                                                                    i

Declaration                                                                                                                 ii

Certification                                                                                                                iii

Dedication                                                                                                                   iv

Acknowledgment                                                                                                        v

Table of contents                                                                                                        vi

List of tables                                                                                                               ix

List of figure                                                                                                               xi

Abstract                                                                                                                       xii

CHAPTER 1 

Introduction                                                                                                                1

CHAPTER 2

Review of Related Literatures                                                                                    4

2.1       Soil Erosion                                                                                                    4

2.2       Soil Erosion in South Eastern Nigeria                                                            5

2.3       Soil Erodibility                                                                                               6

2.3.1    Land use types and erodibility                                                                                   8

2.3.2    Soil texture and soil erodibility                                                                      10

2.3.3    Soil structure and erodibility                                                                          12

2.3.4    Soil erodibility and aggregate stability                                                          13

2.3.5    Soil organic matter and soil erodibility                                                          14

2.3.6    Soil minerology and erodibility                                                                     16

2.3.7    Infiltration rate and permeability of soils                                                                 16

2.3.8    Saturated hydraulic conductivity and soil erodibility                                    18

2.3.9    Bulk density and soil erodibility                                                                    19

2.4       Soil Chemical Properties                                                                                20

2.5       Soil Porosity                                                                                                   21

2.6       Factors Affecting Soil Erosion                                                                                        21

2.7       Erosion Prediction                                                                                          24

2.7.1    Universal soil loss equation                                                                            24

2.7.2    Water erosion prediction project (WEPP)                                                      25

2.8       Soil Water                                                                                                       26

CHAPTER 3

Materials and Methods                                                                                                                                   28

3.1       Description of the Study Area                                                                                    28

3.2       Experimental Design                                                                                      30

3.3       Soil Sampling and Preparation                                                                       30

3.4       Laboratory Studies                                                                                         31       

3.4.1    Texture                                                                                                           31

3.4.2    Microaggregate  stability                                                                                31

3.4.3    Mean weight diameter (MWD) and water stable aggregates (WSA)            32        31

3.4.4    Saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat)                                                         32

3.4.5    Bulk density (BD)                                                                                           32       

3.4.6    Soil chemical properties                                                                                 34

3.4.7    Mineral identification using x-ray diffraction method                                   34

3.5       Soil Erodibility Determination                                                                       35

3.6       Estimation of  Mean Annual Soil Losses                                                       36

3.7       Data Analysis                                                                                                  37

CHAPTER 4

Results and Discussion

4.1       Some physical Characteristics of the Soils                                                     38

4.2       Bulk Density of the Soils Studied                                                                  40

4.3       Organic Matter Content of the Soils Studied                                                 41

4.4       Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity (Ksat)                                                       44

4.5.      Mean Weight Diameter of the Soils                                                               46

4.6       Clay Flocculation Index of the Soils                                                              48

4.7       Dispersion Ratio and Clay Dispersion Index                                                 50

4.8       Aggregated Silt+ Clay (ASC) of the Soils                                                     53

4.9       Soil Moisture Retention Characteristics                                                        55

4.10     The Chemical Characteristics of the Soils                                                     61

4.10.1  Soil pH, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium                                                64

4.10.2  Soil Ca, Mg, BS and ECEC                                                                            70

4.11 Erodibility (k)of the soils                                                                                   77

4.12     Estimated  annual soil losses (tons/ha/yr) of the soil studied                         80

4.13     Correlation  analysis of some physical properties of the soil  with

erodibility factor ( k)                                                                                      82

4.14     Correlation analysis of some physical properties and water retention

characteristics on the erodibility of the soils                                                  84

4.15     Correlation analysis of some chemical properties and the erodibility

of the soils                                                                                                       87

4.16     Soil minerology of the soils studied                                                               89

Fig 12:   X-Ray defractogram  of mineral fraction of soils of 0-15cm depth under different land uses in Owerrinta

4.16.1 Soil minerology and the land use types                                                          94

4.16.2 Mean percentage of the different minerals within soil depths                        95

4.17     Correlation of soil minerals with erodiblity                                                   97

CHAPTER 5

Conclusion and Recommendations                                                                            100

References                                                                                                                  103

Appendices

 

 

 

 

 


 

LIST OF TABLES

3.1:      Structural class indices of soils                                                          35

3.2:      Permeability class indices of soils                                                      36

4.1:      Some physical properties of soils under study                                   39

 4.2:     Bulk density of the soils studied                                                         41

4.3:      Organic matter content of the soils studied                                        43       

4.4:      Saturated hydraulic conductivity Ksat (cm/hr)                                  45

4.5:      Mean weight diameter of the soils                                                     47

4.6:      Clay flocculation index of the soils                                                    49

4.7:      Dispersion ratio of the soils (%)                                                         51

4.8:      Clay dispersion index (%)                                                                  52

4.9:      Aggregated silt+ clay (ASC) of the soils                                            54

4.10:    Available water content (%)                                                               57

4.11:   Field capacity (%)                                                                              58

4.12:    Gravimetric moisture content (g/cm3)                                               59

4.13:    Permanent wilting point (%)                                                              60

4.14:    The chemical characteristics of the soils                                            62

4.15:    pH of the soil studied                                                                          66

4.16:    Nitrogen (%) of the soil studied                                                         67

4.17:    Phosphorus (mg/kg) of the soils studied                                            68

4.18:    Potassium (cmol/kg)of the soils                                                         69

4.19:    Calcium (cmol/kg) content of the soils                                              73

4.20:    Magnesium (cmol/kg) contents of the soils                                       74

4.21:    Effective cation exchange capacity (cmol/kg) of the soils                 75

4.22:    Base saturation (%) of the soils                                                          76

4.23:    Erodibility factor (k) of the soils studied                                           78

4.24:    Standard erodibility indices                                                                79

4.25:    Estimated soil losses of soils studied                                                 81

4.26:    Correlation of some soil parameter with erodibility                          83 

4.27:    Correlation analysis of soil structural properties, water retention

            characteristics and erodibility of the study soil                                  86

4.28:    Correlation analysis of some chemical properties and the

erodibility of the soils                                          88

4.29:    Description of the soil mineral in the soils studied                            91

4.30a: Percentage intensity of the mineral in the different locations                        92

4.30b: Percentage intensity of the mineral in the different locations                        93

4.31:    Table of percentage intensity of the mineral for different

land uses                                                                                 95

4.32:    Soil minerals and their intensity with depth                                       96

4.33:    Correlation of soil minerals with erodibility                                      98

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

LIST OF FIGURE

 

1:   X-ray defractogram of mineral fraction of soils of 30-45 cm depth

under different land uses in Umudike                                                99

 


 


 

 

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Soil erosion is an ecological issue of great concern in the Southeastern part of Nigeria in general and Abia State in particular. Erosion problems arise mainly from natural causes but their extent and severity are increasingly being attributed to man’s ignorance and unsustainable land uses (Enabor and Sagua, 1988). According to Ofomata (2009), soil erosion is simply a systematic removal of soil, including plant nutrients, from the land surface by various agents of denudation. It occurs in several parts of Nigeria under different geological, climatic and soil conditions.

In Southeastern Nigeria, the soils are naturally prone to erosion due to their fragile nature and ease of leaching, being mainly utisols and alfisol (Oguike and Mbagwu, 2009). The situation is further aggravated due to practices like bush burning and indiscriminate excavation (Igwe and Ejiofor, 2005). Since 1991, Abia state has witnessed increased economic and infrastructural activities with obvious consequences on soil exposure and its attendant soil degradation.

Soil erodibility is the degree of susceptibility of the soil to erosion. It is an estimate of the ability of soils to resist or succumb to erosion, based on their physical and chemical characteristics (Ojo and Johnson, 2010). It depends on soil structure, texture and composition. There is a mutual relationship between soil erosion and parent materials based on land use types (Ozdemir and Ashkin, 2003). Soils developed from different parent materials are different and soil characteristics depend on parent rock characteristics (Pellek, 1986). This in turn affects its erodibility depending on the land use type. Human activities like tillage, grazing, lumbering and deforestation affect the degree of soil exposure to erosive forces.  There are different types of parent materials in Abia state, they include coastal plain sands, shale, alluvium, sandstone etc. The coastal plain sands also known as Benin formation is the largest geological formation in eastern Nigeria (Chikezie et al., 2009). It can be found in Osisoma, Amakama and Umudike in Abia State. Alluvium are parent materials transported by flowing rivers and stream. They can be found in Ukwa West, Ukwa East and Owerrinta. Shale parent materials are predominant in Bende, Ibeku, and Arochukwu while sand stones are found in Amake, and Isuikwuato. Generally, soil erosion occurs where there is lack of adequate soil cover. Soil cover either by plants leave or mulch help to reduce the direct impact of rain or wind on soil thereby reducing erosion. Soil mineralogy is one of the most important factors to consider in studying soil erodibility because of its impact on aggregate stability, soil seal formation, water absorption and resistance to erosive forces (Wischmeier and Smith, 1978). Soils dominated by quartz and kaolinite are more resistant to erosive forces than soil dominated by illite and montemorrilonite (Igwe et al., 1999). Soils high in oxides of iron and aluminum, as well as kaolinitic clay, are more aggregated compared to soils dominated by montmorillonite and illite clay minerals (Troeh, 2000). This implies that soils high in oxide of iron and aluminium are more resistant to erosion compared to soil dominated by montemorrillonite and illite.

Soil is taken to be the world’s most valued resource (Willet, 2004). The loss of this resource, through land degradation processes such as soil erosion, soil salinization, acidification, is one of the most serious environmental problems we are faced with, as it destroys the means of producing food (Willet, 2004). In recent years, much of the natural vegetation (forest, and pasture) within Abia State has been converted to different land uses. These changes in land use over time, have affected soil properties related to soil erodibility. Soil erosion is a major environmental problem in Southeastern Nigeria especially Abia state (Chikwendu and Uchenna,2019).

 This work studied the erodibility of soils in relation to their uses and mineralogy in Abia State. An indepth study of the erodibility potentials of soils formed from different parent materials under different land uses will help in adopting good soil management system. Findings from this research will boost the bank of information that will foster sustainable agricultural land uses. This will also help to curb the menace of soil degradation and erosion in Abia state.

The general objective of this study was to determine the erodibility of some soils of Abia state formed on different parent materials under different land uses. The  specific objectives of the study were to:

i.         determine the physical and chemical properties of soils in Abia state and their influence on the erodibility of the soils

ii.         determine the erodibility potentials of some soils formed on different parent materials in Abia state

iii.         predict the soil losses using the rainfall erosivity factor ( R) and the soil erodibility factor (k)  

iv.         evaluate the effect of land uses on the erodibility of some soils of Abia state;

v.         determine the mineralogy of the soils in relation to  erodibility of the soils.

 

 

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