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| dc.contributor.author | Melese, Bililign | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2020-10-30T06:45:51Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2020-10-30T06:45:51Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2020-10-30 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/11483 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Land degradation caused by erosion is an environmental threat that hampered agricultural production by decreasing soil fertility and soil depth. However, the effect of various soil and water conservation practices on soil hydraulic property has not been widely investigated. Therefore, this study was conducted in Aba Gerima watershed, in high lands of Northwest Ethiopia to evaluate the impacts of land use and management on soil hydraulic property along the topo-sequences in Aba Gerima watershed. To evaluate the impacts of soil and water conservation practices, the treated Aba Gerima watershed and the adjacent untreated Zigiba micro watershed were used. Soil samples were collected at the depth of 40 cm at 10 cm interval involving different land uses and slope gradients. The sampling sites within the treated watershed include area closure, cultivated land with 5% slope, cultivated land with 10% slope and cultivated land with 15% slope. Within the control watershed, the sampling sites include openly grazed land, cultivated land with 5% slope, cultivated land with 10% slope and cultivated land with 15% slope. Collection of soil samples in the field involved the use of core rings to collect samples for the analysis of BD, TP, MP, AWC, PWP and FC. Soil samples were also collected without the use of core rings for the analysis of soil texture, SOM and PH. Soil of the study area was found to be very poor and degraded. The major finding shows that the effect of profile depth, land management and land location in the landscape were found to be significantly different. The highest bulk density (1.36 g/cm3) of the soil was found in top layer of the control field where which may be due to reduce in organic matter and trampling of animals. The soil pH was in the study area varies between 5.1 and 6.2 exhibiting the impact of the high rainfall, and in the SLM intervention area values tend to be significantly lower that the corresponding control watershed. Although the highest mean organic matter content of 2.35% was obtained in the steep slope of the control watershed between 10-20 cm top layers of the gentle watersheds showed substantial improvement. The total porosity of the soil varied between 0.48 to 0.65, where the corresponding microporosity varied between 0.09 and 0.35. The lowest micro-porosity was observed in the top soil layer of control field which may be attributed due to the reduced OM and cattle trampling. In conclusion, the SLM intervention in general sustainably improves the hydraulic properties of the soil which in turn have the potential to positively contribute to the hydrological processes in a watershed. Key words: Aba Gerima, Blue Nile, soil hydraulic property, soil and water conservation, sustainable land management, Ethiopia. | en_US |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.subject | Land Resource Management | en_US |
| dc.title | IMPACT OF LAND MANAGEMENT, SLOPE & LAND USE ON SOIL HYDRAULIC PROPERTIES AT ABA GERIMA WATERSHED UPPER BLUE NILE BASIN, NORTH WEST ETHIOPIA | en_US |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_US |
