Creator: Beugber-Bell, H; Buch, M.W. Citation: Madoqua 1997,20(1):91-104 Date: 1997 Abstract: Them is an urgent need in developingc ountries like Namibia for investigafions in order to giveacwlsolidrrted background for adequate managementandfumreland useplrlnningxtivities. Soil in particular, as the the bgsis for plant and animal life, needs special attention and pmtdw, both to guarantee human food supply as wdl as species diversity espxwly in prot&ed areas like the Etosha National hk. Tbe soils of the EtoshaNationalPark were mapped accordq tohe FAO-system using a regionally adapted classification key. Their distribution and properties show a clear relation to eitk small-scale morphological position a d geology. The Major Soil Units muring are Amwmls, Wgosols, Cambisds, LqtowIs, Vwtisols, Para-V&k, Ruvisols as well as Solomchalcs and Solonetzs on the pans and in some shallow warnays and depressim. ReIief-d&md soil associations ( c a m ) m common. Wind and water mion are natural processes in the semi-arid environment of northern Namibii and strongly influence soil pm& genesis. Mainly due to fencing wbicb resaicts large-distance migration rwtes of tbe large g m populatim, regional bigh animal p-kssure and overgdq occur in parts of the Etosha National Park, with the effect of accelerated soil erosion and subsequent environmental degradation. Especially in the inknsivdy utilized p sp k at t he southem and westemmargin of theEtohPanaccelem~windemsionan d sheeterosioncanbeoked.Inthem strongly dissected western park area also rill and gully erosion oocur. Here, like in other parts of the Btosha National Park, permanem watering points are fie focus of spreading land degradation. kpecidy at the end of thedry and thebeginning of the wet season (September to December), when protection by vegetation coverreaches a minimum, both fluvial and aeolian emion processes are highly active. The obsaved w s an d intensit& of soil d o n pr oces8es as well as the modelling of potential emion hazard makes it po~ibleto select regions inside the Emha National Park with s p dcl imaric gensiviiy and high -cation pooentkl. T k e are the grassplains at the westem, southem and northeastern edges of the Etasha Pm and the swagly dissected -weld part of tbe Etosha National Park in tk extreme south-west. Management decisions have to take account of the heterogenity of the mystems aod their individual risk potentid in order to allow a regemration of already degraded areas or to avoid further degradation |
Soils and soil erosion in the Etosha National Park, northern Namibia