Sustainability of Water Resource Management

by
Investigating the characteristics of soil macroporosity under
different land use and land covers of northeast India
- an experimental study

Prepared by
Sangeeta Shougrakpam
Manipur Institute of Technology, Imphal,India.
23.04.2019
 Introduction

Sustainability of water resource management

is a key objective of development strategies in
the northeast part of India and hence land
development for maximum utilization of rain
water for plant growth is the need of the hour.

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Present scenario of northeast India

In northeast India, the landscapes are mainly

characterized by the vegetated hillslopes and
floodplains of river Brahmaputra and its tributaries.
Adoptions of different land use, land cover, and
cultivation practices (Sarkar and Dutta, 2009) are
known to have significant impact on the rainfall-runoff
responses from the watersheds (Yu et. al., 2003; Zhao
et. al., 2004; Alansi et. al., 2009) subjected to different
land use, land cover, and cultivation practices.

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 What is Jhum cultivation?
Jhum cultivation is an ancient practice of clearing a
patch of forest land, cultivating the land for 2-3 years
and then abandoning it for 10-20 years to allow
natural forest to grow back and the soil to regain its
soil fertility and ecological sustainability. Such a
cultivation has gained popularity in northeastern
India, as an organic multi-crop farming system.

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Fig.1. (a-d) Jhum cultivation practices on hillslopes

Burning of forests

a. Clearing of forests b. Burning of forests

(d) Plantation of crops in the Jhum

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c. Preparation of land for cultivation d. Plantation of crops in the Jhum
Aim of the study
To understand the flow behaviour in active macropore
structures of saturated undisturbed soil columns collected
from undisturbed forests, conventional crop fields, and
Jhum cultivated lands of NE region, India.

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 To characterize macroporosity of soils, the dye tracing experiments
and digital image processing techniques were used.
The observed parameters of the soil may be used to compare,
evaluate, and quantify the differences in soil macroporosity under
different land use, land cover, and crop management practices for
effective utilisation of water resource.
The quantitative information collected about the macropore flow
patterns may be used in different fields of science and engineering
applications such as ground water pollution and water quality
modeling, study of soil structural properties and infiltration behavior
(Buttle and McDonald, 2000), identification of lateral macropore flow
responsible for flash floods (El¸ci and Molz, 2009) and hydrological
investigations of rainfall-runoff processes.

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 What are Macropores?

Pores formed by soil fauna (1 mm to over 50 mm in diameter)

Pores formed by plant roots (either live or decayed roots )

Cracks and fissures (by shrinkage resulting from desiccation of

Beven and Germann, 1982 WRR
clay soils.

Natural soil pipes (by erosive action of subsurface flows )

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 For our comparative study of the effects of Jhum
cultivation on infiltration patterns undisturbed soil
Experimental sites columns were collected from different locations of
Waikhulok watershed, Manipur, India

Fig.2. Location of the soil sampling sites in the study areas. 9

This is a predominantly hilly watershed with an area of about
3.9km2. Jhum cultivation is currently used on about 73% of the
watershed area. The land use of the watershed is primarily Jhum
cultivated agriculture and horticultural crops (Seethapathi et. al.,
2008). Under Jhum cultivation, upland paddy (Oryza sativa) is
grown as a broadcasted rainfed crop. Minimum tillage is the
commonly practiced soil manipulation technique and only one crop
per year is produced due to non availability of irrigation water
supply.

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The present study includes both fields as well as laboratory
studies. To quantify the effects of different land use and
cultivation practices on soil macroporosity, soil columns
were collected from different locations (northeast India)
with distinct land uses (fig.2). Each column (25 × 25 × 50
cm) contained a total volume of 31250 cm3 of soil, which
will be a reasonable volume to capture the local scale
macropore distribution in natural field condition as small
diameter macropores (1-4mm) developed by plant roots
dominated the soil profile (Mooney and Morris, 2008).
Table 1. Description of the locations of undisturbed soil sample collection.

Soil Watershed name and Elevation (m) Land use type

Column no geographic location
1,2 Name: Amingaon
Latitude: 26º 12'N
Longitude:91º 42'E
3 Name: Avayapur
Latitude: 26º 12'
Longitude:91º 43'E
4 Name: Rudreswar Gaon
Latitude: 26º 13'N
Longitude:90º 44'E
5,6 Name: Waikhulok Watershed
Latitude: 24º 82'N to 24º 84'N
Longitude:93º 77'E to 93º 79'E
7,8 -do-
9 -do-
10 -do-
55 Undisturbed natural forested hillslopes
48 Recently harvested paddy field in land
plain with conventional cultivation
50 Recently harvested paddy field in plain
land with conventional cultivation
900-1500 Disturbed forest land abandoned
for 4-5 years after Jhum cultivation
-do- Recently harvested paddy fields under
Jhum Cultivation
-do- Pineapple under Jhum cultivation
-do- Banana plantation under Jhum cultivation

Table 1 shows the land use types of different soil sampling sites. The sampling sites were
required to be selected to represent the most common land use and land covers of northeast
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India
 Table 2. Soil textural properties of the samples collected from the study area.

Soil Average Average Average Average Average bulk

Columns sand (%) silt (%) clay (%) porosity density (g/cc)

1 (Natural forest) 22.03 69.50 8.47 0.56 1.21

2 (Natural forest) 28.75 62.43 8.82 0.52 1.24
3 (Conventional paddy) 1.44 90.70 7.86 0.45 1.74
4 (Conventional paddy) 0.08 78.92 21.00 0.44 1.76
5 (Jhum forest) 51.50 34.00 14.50 0.48 1.38
6 (Jhum forest) 49.54 36.23 14.23 0.51 1.33
7 (Jhum paddy) 60.50 24.10 15.40 0.47 1.46
8 (Jhum paddy) 53.00 38.90 18.10 0.52 1.51
9 (Jhum pineapple) 57.00 25.70 17.30 0.49 1.43
10 (Jhum banana) 53.00 25.50 21.50 0.44 1.39

As the soil sampling locations were widely distributed and they were subjected to different land
use and cultivation methods, some spatial variations in soil textural properties and bulk densities
were evident from laboratory analysis of the soil samples (table 2).

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 Soil Column Experimental Set-up

Fig.3a. Undisturbed Soil column. Fig.3b.During conducting dye infiltration tests

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 Soil Column Experimental Set-up

Fig.3a. Undisturbed Soil column. Fig.3b.During conducting dye infiltration tests

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 Apparatus used:

i. A Plexiglas collection chamber as soil infiltrometer

ii. A square overhead water tank
iii. A square tray mounted on a stand
iv. A hollow cylinder to insert moisture probe
v. An outlet for excess water flow
vi. One meter long and 2.5 cm diameter six sensor profile probe soil
moisture meter (Delta T), equipped with a hand held data logger (Delta T).
The moisture probe was inserted through the middle of the soil
column down to the bottom of the hollow cylinder for monitoring the
volumetric moisture content of soil to check for saturation point.

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 Experimental procedure

Each soil sample was subjected to infiltration with clear water for a
period of 3 hours by maintaining a ponding depth of 2 cm to attain a
steady state saturated condition as indicated by the profile probe
readings. Then left the column for 4-5 hours to allow the soil to attain
field capacity.
Dye infiltration experiments were then conducted using Brilliant Blue
R250 (C47H50N3O7S+2; C.I. 42660) dye and the dye solution was
applied at the rate of 4 g/l. After 3 hours supply of dye solution was
stopped and the soil was left for 4-5 hours for allowing proper
distribution of dye.
Then, the soil column was sliced horizontally by a sharp edged thin
plate at 1 cm intervals from the top to analyse the dye distribution
patterns. Serial image of each horizontal slice were taken using a
digital SLR camera for digital image analysis of the dye patterns.
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Results: Horizontal dye pattern analysis

Fig.3(e-h): Depth wise dye coverage distribution of the soil columns

A low penetration dye of 10cm depth was observed in the soil

columns collected from conventional paddy fields which may be due
to prolong paddy cultivation (>100 years) which resulted to the
formation of a hard pan below the puddle depth.

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Results: Horizontal dye pattern analysis

Fig.3(g-h): Depthwise dye coverage distribution of the soil columns

Soils showed higher depth of dye penetration of 20cm than of conventional

paddy fields. The results indicated no formation of hard pan below the
puddle layer of Jhum cultivated paddy fields as in the case of conventional
paddy fields.

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Results: Horizontal dye pattern analysis

Fig.3(a-b): Depthwise dye coverage distribution of the soil columns

For natural hill slopes, dye penetration was visible up to the last soil layer. It
shows the presence of continuous macropores and such distribution can be
expected from densely vegetated undisturbed hill slope soils where growth of
plant roots provides preferential pathways for water movement.

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Results: Horizontal dye pattern analysis

Fig.3(c-d): Depthwise dye coverage distribution of the soil columns

The depth of dye penetration was visible up to 25cm which may be due to the
process of Jhum cultivation, where the natural soil structure and macroporosity
of the natural forest soil were disturbed completely. This may be a long term
effects of macropore sealing in lower soil layers due to Jhum cultivation and the
resulting change in water flow
patterns through soil.

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Results: Horizontal dye pattern analysis

The maximum depth of dye penetration

was 14cm for the soil columns of pineapple
field and 30cm for banana field. The
variation in dye penetration depth was due
to different rooting characteristics of
pineapple and banana.

Fig.3(i-j): Depthwise dye coverage

distribution of the soil columns

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Discussion: Influence of land use and land cover on macroporosity

• Results of the present study show that the most

significant variable that provides first-order control
of the effective soil macroporosity is vegetation and
its root network.

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Discussion: Short term effects of Jhum cultivation
 Result in less infiltration and high sediment and surface
runoff generation
 Disproportionate runoff generation can lead to the
occurrence of floods during monsoon seasons
 Frequent overland flow generation on freshly exposed loose
and bare soil surface can cause accelerated soil erosion
occurrence of floods during monsoon seasons
 Loss of macropore connectivity from the top

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Discussion: Long term effects of Jhum cultivation
 Influences the infiltration behaviour, solute transport,
stormflow generation and rainfall-runoff processes of the
watersheds for a prolonged period and our observation can
show this hydrological recovery of soil following field
abandonment.

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Observations:
 Undisturbed forested hillslope soil had the highest degree of
macroporosity and continuous preferential pathways
throughout the soil profile
 Conventionally cultivated paddy fields had very little
macroporosity
 Limiting land under Jhum cultivation, promoting alternate
cultivation methods and allowing for sufficient recovery time
should help to reduce possible land and water resource impacts
of Jhum cultivation.

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Conclusions:
 Colour dye infiltration experiments combined with digital image
processing provides a clear picture of the variations in dominant
flow processes through
 Wider applications in different cases of preferential flow and
transport processes in the region like macropore flow initiation,
storage capacity of the macropores, and the interaction between
soil matrix and macropore flow.

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Conclusions:

 Provides a better understanding of macropore dominated

flow and transport processes occurring in the region which
will help in better community-based water resource
management of jhum cultivated hilly watershed in
northeastern India.

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