**2. Methodology**

#### **2.1 Climate**

The climate of Lesotho is largely determined by the country's location in the centre of the Southern African Plateau. It is sub-humid to temperate cool with warm and rainy summers and cool to cold dry winters. The mean minimum temperature during winter is around 0°C which is common in June (the coldest month), with the lowlands recording �1 to �3°C and the highlands recording �6 to �8.5°C. The mean annual temperatures recorded are 15.2°C and 7°C for the lowlands and the highlands respectively. In January, which produces the highest mean maximum temperatures throughout the country, temperatures range from 20°C in the highlands, and 32°C in the lowlands. The mean annual precipitation ranges from 500 mm in the Senqu River Valley to 1200 mm in the North and East of the country. Eighty-five percent of the rainfall is received between the months of October and April. Frost and snow are common in winter. The mountains of Lesotho are regularly covered by snow during winter months.

## **2.2 Land use**

Land use is often used as a surrogate for disturbance and has been correlated with biological attributes in wetlands [11, 29]. In Lesotho, agricultural activity (i.e. grazing and livestock watering) coupled with climatic change is the predominant disturbance to seasonal wetlands in all agro-ecological zones. Wetlands can be characterized into low or high impact based on local land use characteristics [5, 30], with low impact wetlands having little or no agricultural activity within 150 m of the wetland boundary and high impact wetlands having agricultural activity within 10 m of the wetland boundary.

#### **2.3 Descriptions of the experimental sites**

The study sites were located within Lesotho at an elevation ranging between 1800 m and >2000 m above sea level (asl) (**Table 1** and **Figures 1** and **2**) in two agro-ecological zones (AEZ): the Foot-Hills and the Mountains. Shrubs co-dominate at higher elevations in the Mountains AEZ, wile in the Foot-Hills, the dominant vegetation is grasses (i.e. *Cyperus spp*)*.*

#### **2.4 Selections of wetlands in relation to utilization**

Wetlands were selected for this research were characterized as either low, medium or highly impacted based on (i) local land-use characteristics [31]; and (ii) the intensity of anthropogenic pressures such as mining, smelting, and discharge of an industrial pollutant into the wetlands. Low impacted wetlands has little (i.e. <5%) or no agricultural activity within 150 m of the wetland boundary [5, 32]. The wetlands classified as highly impacted had agricultural activities; within 10 m of wetland boundary (i.e. ffi33% of the wetland area is impacted). The medium impacted wetlands had agricultural activities between 5 and 32% of the wetland boundary. Using the probability sampling approach [33], coupled with accessibility and ease of continuous monitoring, two wetland types lacustrine and riverine systems were identified in two different AEZs of Lesotho (**Table 1**).

*Wetland Health in Two Agro-Ecological Zones of Lesotho: Soil Physico-Chemical Properties… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.101836*

**Figure 1.** *view of* Khalong-la-Lithunya *showing the three transects.*

**Figure 2.** *View of* Ha-Matela *showing transects and stream.*
