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- Convenors:
-
Ganlin Zhang
Yiyun Chen (Wuhan University)
Send message to Convenors
- Chairs:
-
Ganlin Zhang
Yiyun Chen (Wuhan University)
- Discussants:
-
Ganlin Zhang
Yiyun Chen (Wuhan University)
- Stream:
- Anthropocene
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 16 September, -, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
Thinking spatially and making use of spatially explicit data help gain insights into human-soil interaction and its effects on soil security and sustainable development of human society. This panel encourages interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary studies from both anthropologists and geographers.
Long Abstract:
There has long been a historical link between soil and human civilization. In the Anthropocene, humanity has become a more dominant force influencing the pedosphere than its natural counterparts in many parts of the world. Global soil security and sustainable development of human society have been threatened by soil degradations, which poses great emphases on a synthetical understanding of anthropogenic impacts on soil and its feedbacks. In addition, rethinking the role that cultural anthropologists take in soil conservation is vital due to the fact that soil is shaped not only by natural processes but through historical and contemporary human activities. The ever-increasing sensor data and ubiquitous geographic information provide an opportunity to visualize the previously invisible and reveal the unknown stories behind human-soil interactions. Thinking spatially and making use of spatially explicit data help to gain insights into human-soil interaction and its effects on soil security and sustainable development of human society. This panel encourages interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary studies from both anthropologists and geographers. Topics could include, but not limited to: soil conservation, soil security and sustainable development, farmer behavior and soil management, the influence of soil on human health, digital soil mapping, soil sensing, soil forensics, pedodiversity and SUITMA.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 16 September, 2020, -Yiyun Chen (Wuhan University)
Paper short abstract:
Humanity has become a more dominant force influencing the pedosphere than its natural counterparts in the Anthropocene. The integration of human factors in digital soil mapping can promote our understanding of human-soil interaction, which is essential for sustainable management of land resource.
Paper long abstract:
In the Anthropocene, humanity has become a more dominant force influencing the pedosphere than its natural counterparts, especially in the areas with rapid economic development and land-use change. Understanding the human-soil interaction could thus be vital for policymakers not only in the agriculture sector but also in the field of watershed management and spatial planning. With the aim to comprehensively quantify the spatial dynamics of soil properties and their scale-dependent relationship with surrounding environment, we propose to include human factors as a predictive SCORPAN factor in the soil-landscape modeling. We illustrate our ideas with two case studies in China and demonstrate the arts of soil cartography using combined satellite remote sensing images and geospatial data analysis and mapping. We highlight that better soil mapping means better and easier understanding of human-soil interaction, which is essential for sustainable management of land resource.
Peiheng Yu (Wuhan University) Yiyun Chen (Wuhan University)
Paper short abstract:
Indigenous soil knowledge can increase the potential for collective action, but should not be overestimated. Soil knowledge and collective action focus on sustainable soil management and ecological environment, which provides an alternative understanding of soil.
Paper long abstract:
In the Anthropocene, the dynamic relationship between population pressure and land use has brought an increasing attention to the study of soil use practices, in which soil knowledge and collective action play a prominent role. Soil knowledge can not only influence collective action that improve soil function and productive, but could also harm the landscape. The historical process of natural disasters, landscape transformation, population growth and agricultural activity in Qilu Lake watershed, Yunnan Province, China makes this area an interesting case. With the aim to evaluate how soil knowledge and collective action are involved in soil management, we (i) characterized long-term land cover change with satellite photography, (ii) evaluated the ecological impact with soil sampling, laboratory analysis and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) image, and (iii) investigated indigenous soil knowledge and collective action through field survey. We find that farmers took collective action to improve soil texture, such as using stone pits from nearby mountain areas, applying organic fertilizers, deep plowing and shallow planting. These human activities sped up the processes including farmland expansion, water reduction and deterioration, and ecological environment damage of the watershed. The implementation of indigenous soil knowledge should be guided under sustainable soil management strategy. Recent Chinese government policies such as river chief system and demarcation of ecological protection red line have promoted sustainable watershed development. Leveraging the complementarity of indigenous soil knowledge and modern soil science is highlighted as an overall strategy for sustainable soil management, which helps bridge the gap between sociocultural and physical research.
Zihao Wu (Wuhan University) Yiyun Chen (Wuhan University) Jianai Zhou Yaolin Liu (Wuhan University)
Paper short abstract:
Crop rotation affects the spatial variability of soil properties, and may offer considerable potentials for farmland SOCD mapping in plains. This paper obtained crop rotation maps using time-series remote sensing images and incorporated rotation information in improving SOCD mapping.
Paper long abstract:
Accurate mapping of farmland soil organic carbon density (SOCD) is crucial for precision agriculture and carbon sequestration potential evaluation. Topographical factors are the most commonly used and effective variables to assist in mapping soil properties. However, they perform poorly when applied to plains. The impact of human activities, especially farmland management, on soil properties have drawn increasing attention. Crop rotation that involves crop species and multiple cropping index affects the spatial variability of soil properties, and may offer considerable potentials for farmland SOCD mapping in plains. The objective of this paper is to obtain crop rotation maps and incorporate rotation information in mapping SOCD. Specifically, using 230 topsoil samples collected in Jianghan Plain, China, we (i) obtain crop species and multiple cropping index maps using time-series HJ-1A/1B satellite images; (ii) investigate the difference of SOCD under different crop rotations, and (iii) explore the effectiveness of incorporating rotation information in mapping SOCD. The results of two-way analysis of variance showed significant difference of SOCD under different crop species. The SOCD under monoculture was higher than that of multiculture. Post hoc test results suggested that the SOCD under single cropping rice and soybean was high, while SOCD under maize-artemisia selengensis and sesame-wheat was low. The effectiveness of regression Kriging model that integrated rotation information was favored by the model validation results. The findings reveal the importance of single cropping rice and soybean in reducing the carbon loss and the effectiveness of crop rotation in improving farmland SOCD mapping in plains.
Dongmei Xu (Wuhan University) Yiyun Chen (Wuhan University)
Paper short abstract:
China's booming crayfish sector has not significantly increased the income of crayfish farmers, but has pushed them towards semi-proletarianization. To study the impact of agricultural capitalization on crayfish farmers' economy, we combine field research with Phillip Huang's "Involutionary Theory".
Paper long abstract:
The ever-increasing crayfish industry is of great significance to promote economic and social development. While the demand and price of cooked crayfish has risen dramatically, the income of most crayfish farmers has not increased significantly. To investigate where the intermediate profit goes, we did a field research in Jianli County, which is known as the "China's first crayfish county". It was found that most of the intermediate profit was actually plundered by the capital owner. Crayfish farmers from the county are mainly engaged in direct agricultural production, yet, their upstream, such as crayfish seed, feed, animal protection products, and downstream, such as processing, marketing, cold chain logistics are all monopolized by agricultural capital. Our research provides evidence to support the theory proposed by Phillip Huang that agricultural capital often does not participate in agricultural production but rely mainly on the field of circulation through cheap purchases and expensive sales to capture the market income of crayfish agricultural products. We also highlight the need to protect crayfish farmers' profits given their little benefit from the development of crayfish industry. We suggest that the existing new vertical integration need to be learned to establish a new type of logistics system and improve the crayfish industry chain. For example, the government could help crayfish farmers to set up freezing plants and promote crayfish catering industry, etc. Perhaps this study will be conducive to increasing farmers' income and achieving rural revitalization.