eChapters

Historical Development of Soil Science/Agriculture

Francis Bacon (1561-1624 A.D.): Found the water as nutrient of plants.

Van Helmont (1577-1644): Give the ideas about the role of soil as a simple source of water and minerals for the plants.

Introduction 
Augmented energy demand as well as impacts of employment of fossil coals on human health and environment, stresses and imposes the need to lessen the use of conventional fuels or replace them. Equally, global warming has stretched to a distressing level due to many diverse anthropogenic actions leading to increased pollution. The alternate energy sources are desirable that might be the conspicuous and sustainable approach of enabling environmental remediation, besides meeting the global energy call (Grosser et al 2016, Kanchanasutha et al 2016). A potential solution is generation of Biofuels, either conventional biofuels produced from agricultural crops or advanced biofuels produced from wastes, inedible crops or forestry products (Sreedevi Sarsan et al 2021). Advanced biofuels production especially by the utilization of agricultural and animal wastes using new technologies and processes are gaining increased interest among researchers and general public all over the world. Food waste, municipal trash, animal waste and other wastes can all be utilised as feedstocks to create biogas, a clean and sustainable energy source and thus may be the ideal replacement for traditional energy sources. The raw biomass may be converted into fuel products like biogas by briquetting, gasification, and anaerobic digestion, among other processes (Deepanraj et al 2015). In comparison to landfills, incinerations, and composting processes, anaerobic digestion (AD) is suggested as an inexpensive and environmentally benign technique for the generation of renewable energy (Van Forest et al 2012; Nishio et al 2007; Capson-Tojo et al 2016; Xu, F et al 2018; Cha, M et al 2020). The production of energy-rich biogas and alleviation of issues related to the removal of organic waste are all achieved by anaerobic digestion (AD) of organic solids (Sonakya et al 2001). This is since AD is a highly energy-efficient and ecologically benign technique. In an atmosphere devoid of oxygen, the AD system uses anaerobic microbes to transform the naturally occurring substances in the biomass into biogas. The primary byproduct of AD, biogas, has a methane content of roughly 50-70% by volume and 30- 40% atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) when feedstocks are digested under anaerobic circumstances, with small levels of hydrogen sulphide (H2S) (0.1-3% v/v), humidity, and other trace pollutants also present (Sahota et al. 2018). The generation of biogas is known to be influenced by factors such as waste types, pretreatment procedures, the microorganisms or enzymes added, operation circumstances and design of the digestors (Mao et al 2015).

Introduction

Spectral signature: A spectral signature is the unique pattern of reflection and emission of a target at different wavelengths. This difference helps to classify remote sensing images based on the spectral signatures of different objects.

Electromagnetic (EM) spectrum: The EM spectrum is the range of all types of EM radiation. Some examples are visible light from a lamp, radio waves from a radio station, microwaves, infrared light, ultraviolet light, X-rays, and gamma rays.

Spectral response patterns: A spectral response pattern is the amount of energy that an object reflects or emits at different wavelengths. It shows how the object interacts with the EM radiation.

Abstract

Most of the sorghum accessions are landraces, and much of the cultivated area of sorghum is under local land races. The local land races are highly adapted to specific environmental conditions and are useful sources of genetic variation. Under the present investigation one hundred and two local land races of sorghum collected from different geographical origins were evaluated during kharif 2010 and kharif 2011 in order to assess the genetic diversity. The analysis of variances showed highly significant differences among the accessions for all the characters studied.

Introduction

Diversity connotes multiplicity of variety. In a given ecosystem, diversity refers to presence of number of different species of ?ora and fauna that have ecological niches in agreement with the environment. Scaling up, there exists diversity between different ecosystems. All life forms of ?ora and fauna on earth contains genetic material, that is the repository of an immense amount of genetic information in the form of traits, characteristics, etc. Focusing on the species level, genetic diversity refers to genetic variation that is observed in a population. Thus, genetic diversity is the total number of genetic characteristics in the genetic makeup of a species. This provides in built latitude to the nature and/or the livestock breeders (including farmers) to manoeuvre/ manipulate so as evolve an improved population of desired qualities and traits. Further, genetic diversity is essential because the presence of adequate and appropriate genes in a population will make the species tide over adversaries owing to climate change and other emerging threats like new disease outbreaks. The ‘desired’ divergent gene pool provides the inherent resilient mechanism that equip the species to cope with likely challenging situation.

Over the years, with human interventions, the genetic diversity has been interfered with to meet specific needs; mostly with respect to garnering higher production and productivity. In the process, the diversity has been compromised for achieving the unitary goal. In certain cases, geographical barriers and other bio-physical constraints have also led to loss of diversity within a population. Studies on impact of climate change especially the effect of rise in environmental temperature on milk production of dairy animals indicate that global warming will negatively impact milk production. During 2020, the annual loss in milk production of cattle and buffaloes due to thermal stress will be around 3.2 million tonnes of milk costing more than Rs 5000 Crore at current price. Similarly, there would be prevalence of many emerging diseases including those with zoonotic implications owing to change in climatic conditions. Thus, the present day society is confronted with an imminent development dilemma of ecology vs. economics more specifically genetic diversity vs. higher production. It has led to volume of debates and discussions on the livestock development agenda to be pursued. The apparently con?icting interests has also generated antipathy amongst two schools of development.

Introduction

Animals have delicate balance of heat production and heat loss, which is maintained by thermoregulatory mechanisms in response to environmental temperature and humidity combinations. When the heat loss is overrun by heat gain, heat stress occurs. During heat stress, increase in the core body temperature due to failure of homeostatic mechanism reduces productivity of the animals below their original genetic potential in growth, milk production, milk constituents and reproduction (Ravagnolo and Misztal, 2002). Impending climate change scenario is a unanimously accepted reality. Increase in the anthropogenic greenhouse gases (CO₂, CH₄and NO₂) cause radiation leading to excess warming of the earth’s environmental system. According to IPCC, the predicted temperature rises for the end of 21^st century may be in the range of 1.8^oC to 4^oC (IPCC, 2007). The climate change has complex impact on the livestock production. Temperature or heat stress will be one of the major environmental factor to in?uence the health and productivity of livestock population. The least tropically adapted livestock may be severely affected by heat stress. The manage mental and ameliorative practices can deal with the heat stress in short term, however the long term focus of developing genetic heat stress tolerance in livestock population will be a significant and impactful strategy.

Abstract

The balance between resources and population constitute the solid base for drawing the future map of sustainable development in the study area in all developmental sectors such as agriculture, industry, tourism, and commercial sectors. Geoenvironmental hazards such as erosion, sea level changes, sand dune encroachment, siltation of the navigation channel of the Damietta harbor, salinization of the soils, the negative effects of the protective structures and bad management of the coastal areas must be studied in details before making the future planning for any area. The main geomorphologic units in this area are: beaches, sand dunes, wetlands, urban areas, reclamation lands and lagoons.

The rate of erosion from 1984 to 2000 in the Rosetta beach is -117.6 m/yr, while it is -17.6 m/yr in the Damietta beach. On the other hand, the rate of erosion in the period from 1984 to 2005 is -104.6 m/yr and -11.4 m/yr in Rosetta and Damietta beaches, respectively. Since, Nile Delta is a typical wave dominated delta (Coleman et al., 1981) and Tide is a semi-diurnal microtidal regime with a maximum tidal range of 50 cm (UNESCO/UNDP, 1978), the erosion and accretion are very dangerous hazard in the area.

Due to the reclamation of vast areas of the coastal dunes, the lagoons and wetlands, the new reclaimed lands are added to the agricultural deltaic land. Thus, the coastal sand dunes, lagoons and wetlands are decreased. The main urban centers have expanded, and new urban centers (Damietta harbor, the New Damietta city and Mansoura city in near future) have been constructed at the expense of vast areas of lagoons, coastal dunes, and backshore flats. The siltation of the navigation canal of the Damietta harbor, salting of the soil (new and old) and sand dune encroachment are very important hazards in the study area. All the previous geoenvironmental hazards and others threaten the sustainable development in the study area.

Abstract

Water has become a scarce resource all over the World. Water resources of Earth can be classified as surface water and groundwater in which groundwater is the main source for the drinking, domestic and agriculture. The Pudukkottai district is one of the chronic drought prone areas in Tamil Nadu. But, at the same time, the district is pitted with over 5,400 tanks/water bodies widely distributed throughout in general and clustered more in Vellar delta in particular, as the interlobel depressions have provided basic depressions for the surface water to accumulate. However, these surface water bodies are heavily silted. In Pudukkottai district, there are three divergent aquifer systems, hard rock aquifer system in the western, sedimentary aquifer system constituted by the Tertiary Sandstone (Cuddalore Sandstone) in the central and Quaternary aquifer system constituted by fluvial, fluvio-marine and marine systems in the eastern parts of the district.

Abstract

The Sonapur landslide located in the south eastern fringe of Shillong Plateau falls in NH44 connecting Shillong with Agartala. The slide is repeatedly active and massive debris flows occur during every monsoonic season since 1999. The studies carried out under the NRDMS funded project shows that the slide falls in the tectonically active E-W Dauki fault system, which not only forms the southern boundary of the Shillong plateau but also the near vertical plane along which the Shillong plateau has been uplifted due to the northerly compressive force and the collision of Indian plate with Eurasian plate. Such post collision tectonic uplift and the southerly tilt of the Shillong plateau in its southern part, monoclinal southerly dipping sediments south of Dauki fault, Sylhet trough, occurrence of NE-SW sinistral (shears) and NW-SE dextral faults in Sonapur area, high seismic activity and rainfall are responsible for the Sonapur Landslide.

Abstract

Geological conditions in the Tertiary mountainous areas of the western and eastern hill ranges of Manipur often cause landslide movements. These repeatedly occur mostly in old landslide regions during rainy seasons on a large scale, causing considerable economic loss and injuries and deaths of humans. In order to improve such landslide hazard assessment of the region for effective mitigation, Electrical resistivity surveys were conducted using Schlumberger array technique on the very unstable and problematic frontal part of the Kotland landslide, NH-37, Manipur along three profiles. Electrical resistivities aided the characterization and quantification of the subsurface rock units, structure and tectonic conditions of the Landslided area which can contribute for the better planning of mitigation strategies. The results lead to the elucidation of depth of the different litho-units and the geometry of failure surface. The probable failure surface was observed between 10 and 22m depth, characterised by low resistivity (< 150 Ωm) and geometry of the sliding surface was rotational. In addition, a fault was also inferred in the resistivity pseudosection model and hence the area may be highly vulnerable to landslides.

ABSTRACT

The present paper discusses about the Geoelectrical response over Charnockite rocks and Biotite Gneiss rock types of Sankaran kovil and Tenkasi Taluks of Tirunelveli District, Tamilnadu. The study area is adjoined to the Western Ghats which geologically comprises Archean crystalline hard rocks. In this attempt, about 7 Vertical Electrical Soundings (3 in Gneiss and 4 in Charnockite) have been carried out in both terrains. The VES values were interpreted with Schlumberger Sounding Dada Processing and Interpretation Program .The resistivity values varied from 68 m to 808 m with the layer thickness of 10m, 20 m and 29m in the biotite gneiss terrain. Similarly, the resistivity values varied from 48 m to 444 m with the layer thickness of 4m, 6m, 9m,18m & 29m in the charnockite terrain. But the depth to massive rock for both the rock types has been observed below 29m. In this study, a difference in resistivity with high resistivity values in gneissic terrain and lower values in charnockite terrain have been observed. The observed resistivity differences are mainly due to the presence of resisting minerals such as biotite and hornblende. Besides, other factors like weathering and water table also influence the resistivity values. Hence, it is summerised that the geoelectric methods are the best methods to understand the subsurface lithostudies.

Introduction to GIS

QGIS (Quantum GIS) is an open-source Geographic Information System (GIS) software has been used to showcase various exercises pertaining to viewing, editing, analyzing, and printing of the geospatial data. QGIS helps to allow the users to easily access and manage geographic data stored in folders on local disks or relational databases available on the user’s network. QGIS supports raster, vector, and mesh layers. QGIS also allows using data from external sources with the help of web services such as Web Map Service (WMS) and Web Feature Service. QGIS is a constantly developing software as anyone can add new features or update existing tools. Newer versions of QGIS are frequently released on the official website. It is a cross-platform software that can be installed in Windows, Linux, and MacOS.

More information, more accurate and timely decision. In present high tech world, the more information you have it is easier to make an accurate decision. The information comes in many different ways, from reports to digital photos. A new way to analyze data is a geographic information system (GIS). GIS allows to bring all types of data together based on the geographic and locational component of the data. GIS is a useful tool for seeking innovative ways to solve the problems.

9.1 What is GIS?

A geographic information system (GIS) is a system designed to capture, store manipulate, analyze, manage and present all types of geographically referenced data. GIS can be defined as a computer-based system for digital entry, storage, transformation, analysis and display of spatial data. A geographic information system integrates hardware, software and geographically referenced data for further analysis. GIS allows users to interpret the georeferenced data in many ways that reveal relationships, patterns and trends.

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Geographic Information System (GIS) is the new emerging field and grows at very rapid pace. Now GIS is a billion dollar industry with applications in varied disciplines. At present, GIS is being used by professionals from various disciplines. In this decade, GIS is being used by experts who are good in GIS technology for various applications. The development trend indicates that GIS will be used by common man in near future and at the same time, advanced GIS analysis will be carried out by GIS experts.

Any technology is developed out of necessity and GIS is of no exception. When a large amount of data were available for water distribution systems, road network, sewer lines, telecom lines, electricity lines, gas pipe lines, state wise population, natural resources etc, it is important to store, maintain and retrieve the data for applications. It is not possible to manually browse through the large amount of paper records. Also even if the data is available in an unorganized way in the computerized environment, it is not useful. Hence if the data are referred to locations in earth surface and the data are stored in an organized way, it is possible to retrieve and analyse the data for applications. Hence the solution is GIS and developed today into reality. Developed countries are using GIS widely in many areas but developing countries are moving towards the development of GIS database for their resources.

Remote sensing, aerial photography, cartography, surveying and other field instruments for attribute data collection contributes to the data acquisition. Cartography, surveying, geography, geodesy contributes for mapping process. Disciplines like computer science and statistics, mathematics involved in processing and analysing data . Computer science and mathematics involved in storing the data structure.

GIS maps are intelligent. It has many advantages compared with paper map in this digital age.

Spatial data means data which are referenced to earth. Maps, satellite imageries, aerial photographs are example of spatial data. Attribute data which are attached to spatial data are called as aspatial data or non-spatial data.

If these data are brought into GIS then it is stored in a standard format, it is possible to update, share, retrieve, manipulate and analyse quickly. Much of the time and money is saved in case of reproduction and better decisions could be made

Introduction

A geographical information system (GIS) is a kind of database that has software tools for handling, analyzing, and presenting spatial data and descriptions of phenomena that have a location component. This system can also involve human users and support staff, procedures and workflows, a body of knowledge about relevant concepts and methods, and institutional organizations in a wider sense. GIS technology is a key part of spatial data infrastructure, which the White House describes as “the policies, technologies, standards, human resources, and related activities that are necessary to acquire, process, distribute, use, maintain, and preserve spatial data.”

Geography plays a vital role in understanding the complex dynamics of fisheries, encompassing both marine and inland ecosystems. The spatial distribution of fish populations, habitats, and environmental factors are all critical components that influence the productivity and sustainability of fisheries. By examining the geographical aspects of fisheries, researchers and managers can gain valuable insights into the interactions between fish populations, their environment, and human activities.
12.1 Importance of Geography in Fisheries
Geography is essential for understanding the spatial dynamics of fisheries, including:
• Habitat mapping: Identifying and mapping fish habitats, such as coral reefs, estuaries, and wetlands, is crucial for managing fisheries sustainably.
• Fish migration patterns: Understanding the migration patterns of fish populations helps researchers and managers develop effective conservation and management strategies.
• Environmental factors: Geography helps researchers understand the impact of environmental factors, such as climate change, ocean acidification, and water quality, on fish populations and ecosystems.
• Human activities: Geography also helps researchers understand the impact of human activities, such as fishing, coastal development, and pollution, on fisheries and ecosystems.

Abstract

Indian Peninsular shield has been thought as tectonically inert and aseismic for many years by the Geoscientists. But, subsequent to the disastrous earthquakes in Killari, Jabalpur and Kutch, studies have been initiated in multiple directions on various aspects of seismicities. The present study is aimed at bringing out a possible picture on the seismic vulnerability of parts of Westernghats of Tamil Nadu using various tectano geomorphic anomalies like unifrequency lineaments and different levels of dissection of plateaus, denudational geomorphic anomalies like anomalous talus materials and fluvial geomorphic anomalies like radial drainages, compressed meanders, eyed drainages and wider flood plains interpreted from the raw and digitally processed Landsat TM and IRS P6 LISS-III satellite datasets. The subsequent generation of individual GIS layers on these anomalies and their integration revealed that the N-S faults are tectonically active and the NE-SW and NNE-SSW faults are active faults. Many earthquake epicenters were also found to fall along these lineaments / faults.

Introduction

The Indian peninsular shield, exposing the Archaeozoie - Proterozoic piles of rocks, is known for its tectonic inertness and the related land stability. Owing to such shield area character, the geoscientists were also having strong convictions for a long time that seismically the area is safe.