Nigeria Geographical Journal, Volume 9(1) June 2013: ISSN 1358-4319
©Association of Nigerian Geographers; All Rights Reserved
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ASSESSMENT OF SOIL STRUCTURAL STABILITY UNDER
DIFFERENT VEGETAL COVER CONDITIONS IN THE FEDERAL
CAPITAL TERRITORY, ABUJA, NIGERIA
J.A. Edicha and L.L.O. Mgbanyi
Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Abuja, P.M.B 117
Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, NIGERIA
*Correspondence (libertwise@yahoo.com)
ABSTRACT
The study examined Soil Structural Stability under Different Vegetal Cover
Conditions in the Federal Capital Territory (F.C.T), Nigeria. The study relies
essentially on Pieri’s (1991) Critical Level of Soil Organic Matter Concentration
(St) used to assess structural stability and susceptibility of the soil to erosion.
Some of the land use considered were Riparian vegetation, Primary forest,
Continuous farming, Continuous cropping, Flood plain, Sugarcane plantation,
Grassland, Secondary forest and Rural land use. On a transect line of 100 metres, a
quadrant of 60cm by 60cm was located at every 50 metres. nine (9) equal size
grids up to three (3) parts and the midpoint of it on each land use was sampled
during dry season and wet season using soil auger for analysed in the laboratory
using standard Analytical Procedures (Jou, 1983);Organic carbon by wet
digestion method(Walkley and Black ,1934), Soil particle size distribution by
Bouyoucos (1951) hydrometer method. The result shows that soils under all the
land use have St≤5%; indicating loss of soil structure and high susceptibility to
erosion both in the wet and dry season with most of the land uses experiencing
more of this phenomenon in the wet season. S
t
across the land uses in the wet
season is 2.36% and in the dry season 3.33%%.The study recommend sugarcane
plantation in stabilizing soil structure and reducing soil erosions in the floodplain
areas care for soils on all land use during wet season as this could exacerbate soil
tendency to erode by water in the study area.
Keywords: Critical level; Organic matter; Landuses; Structural stability; Erosion
susceptibility; Vegetal Cover
INTRODUCTION
Human activities such as
agriculture and urbanization are
capable of interfering and
affecting the normal
operability(Mallo and Mgbanyi,
2013) of the biological processes of
aggregation, the most prominent
being: the burrowing and
moulding activities of soil
animals, the enmeshment of