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Impact of Agricultural Land Use Types on Soil Moisture Retention of Loamy Soils

Authors :
Szabolcs Czigány
Noémi Sarkadi
Dénes Lóczy
Anikó Cséplő
Richárd Balogh
Szabolcs Ákos Fábián
Rok Ciglič
Mateja Ferk
Gábor Pirisi
Marcell Imre
Gábor Nagy
Ervin Pirkhoffer
Source :
Sustainability; Volume 15; Issue 6; Pages: 4925
Publication Year :
2023
Publisher :
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 2023.

Abstract

Increasingly severe hydrological extremes are predicted for the Pannonian Basin as one of the consequences of climate change. The challenges of extreme droughts require the adaptation of agriculture especially during the intense growth phase of crops. For dryland farming, the selections of the optimal land use type and sustainable agricultural land management are potential adaptation tools for facing the challenges posed by increased aridity. To this end, it is indispensable to understand soil moisture (SM) dynamics under different land use types over drought-affected periods. Within the framework of a Slovenian–Hungarian project, soil moisture, matric potential and rainfall time series have been collected at three pilot sites of different land use types (pasture, orchards and a ploughland) in SW Hungary since September 2018. Experiments were carried out in soils of silt, silt loam and clay loam texture. In the summers (June 1 to August 31) of 2019 and 2022, we identified normal and dry conditions, respectively, with regard to differences in water balance. Our results demonstrated that soil moisture is closely controlled by land use. Marked differences of the moisture regime were revealed among the three land use types based on statistical analyses. Soils under pasture had the most balanced regime, whereas ploughland soils indicated the highest amplitude of moisture dynamics. The orchard, however, showed responses to weather conditions in sharp contrast with the other two sites. Our results are applicable for loamy soils under humid and subhumid temperate climates and for periods of extreme droughts, a condition which is expected to be the norm for the future.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
20711050
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Sustainability; Volume 15; Issue 6; Pages: 4925
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....c31bed16d3541a87c0ca0b0d95dcc150
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/su15064925