Restoring degraded Kenyan grassland soils

恢复退化的肯尼亚草原土壤

• 批准号: 2886372
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Lancaster University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2886372
• 关键词: Restoring; degraded; Kenyan; grassland; soils

Soils underpin food production in Africa, and they are under extreme pressure and while there has been considerable research into the management of African soils for crop production, far less research has been conducted into grasslands management. Poor grazing practices and the continuous removal of nutrients and organic matter negatively impacts on plant nutrition; soil erosion reduces soil depth lowering water storage and brings poorer subsoil to the surface and in extreme cases leads to the abandonment of livestock grazing altogether. Estimates suggest 40 to 60% of soils in Africa are degraded, therefore there is clearly need to restore the soil productivity to sustain livelihoods.Our GCRF-ODA funded Restoring Degraded African Landscapes (ReDeal) work in Kenya has begun to explore options for restoration. We have established three factorial experiments in contrasting pedological settings investigating the role of manures, seeding and tillage on soil biogeochemical processes. The long-term maintenance of these experiments has been guaranteed by our CASE partner ILRI. In addition, we will establish in 2023 a large-scale experiment to study the influence of livestock grazing funded by ILRI and UKRI. These experiments will provide an unparalled resource for work into soil restoration strategies in tropical African grasslands.This project aims to evaluate the impact of restoration strategies on grassland soil multifunctionality utilising the ReDeal experiments and new manipulation experiments to test how resilient the interventions are to future climate extremes including drought and flooding. This project will add mechanistic understanding to the ongoing programme delivering new knowledge on these understudied tropical grasslands.Objectives:1. Quantify the impact of restoration strategies on soil physical (aggregate stability, water holding capacity, water infiltration), biochemical (C, N and P stocks) and biological (nutrient cycling and microbial community) properties.2. Examine whether differences in the soil response are influenced by the soil mineralogical characteristics and by grazing.3. Determine the climate sensitivity and resilience of the soils following restoration interventions.

土壤是非洲粮食生产的基础，它们承受着极大的压力，虽然对非洲作物生产土壤管理进行了大量研究，但对草原管理的研究要少得多。不良的放牧做法以及不断地清除养分和有机物质对植物营养产生不利影响;土壤侵蚀减少了土壤深度，降低了蓄水量，使下层土壤更贫瘠，在极端情况下导致完全放弃放牧。据估计，非洲40%至60%的土壤已经退化，因此显然需要恢复土壤生产力以维持生计。我们在肯尼亚的GCRF-ODA资助的恢复退化非洲景观（ReDeal）工作已经开始探索恢复方案。我们建立了三个因子实验，在对比土壤学设置调查的作用，粪肥，播种和耕作土壤地球化学过程。这些实验的长期维护由我们的CASE合作伙伴ILRI保证。此外，我们将在2023年建立一个大规模的实验，以研究由ILRI和UKRI资助的牲畜放牧的影响。这些实验将为非洲热带草原的土壤恢复策略提供无与伦比的资源，该项目旨在评估恢复策略对草原土壤多功能性的影响，利用ReDeal实验和新的操作实验来测试干预措施对未来极端气候（包括干旱和洪水）的适应能力。该项目将为正在进行的关于这些研究不足的热带草原的新知识提供机制性的理解。量化恢复策略对土壤物理（团聚体稳定性、持水能力、水分入渗）、生物化学（C、N和P储量）和生物学（养分循环和微生物群落）特性的影响.检查土壤反应的差异是否受到土壤矿物学特征和放牧的影响。确定恢复干预措施后土壤的气候敏感性和恢复能力。