**3.1 Summary statistics and characteristics of the restored wetland (Khalong-la-Lithunya) (KHL)**

Soils of KHL wetland have a texture that is rich in sand and ranged between 49.28% and 87.28% with a mean of 68.76 1.07%; silt content ranged between 4 and 40% with a mean of 23.49 0.97% and clay between 0.72 and 21% with a mean of 7.71 0.51%. The soil organic carbon (SOC) content ranged from 1.30–5.76% with a mean of 3.92 0.13% and the soils have low bulk densities. These soils have an acidic pHw of 3.85–5.90 and mean of 5.04 0.05 and pH in KCl of between 3.24 and 5.67 with a mean of 4.46 0.04. Generally, the cation exchange capacity (CEC) ranged between 0.02 and 8.33 cmol/kg with a mean of 3.32 0.30 cmol/kg and base cations (K, Ca, Mg and Na) generally ranged between 0.01 and 38.36 mg/L. The total nitrogen (TN) and available P (AvP) ranged between 0.01 and 1.70 mgN/L with a mean of 0.01 0.05 mgN/L and 0.06–11.55 mgP/L and a mean of 2.79 0.21 mgN/ L. The SOC-pool within KHL wetlands (i.e. has a mean of 11.62 0.72 kg cm2 ). The silt:clay ratio ranged between 0.2 and 112.98 and has a mean of 4.73 1.63. According to Asamoa (1973) and Zhang et al. [39], soils of old parent materials (PM) have ratios of <0.25, while those with ratios of >0.25 are of indicative of low degree of weathering. This suggests that despite the restoration efforts the PM of the restored wetlands are at different degree of weathering. The coefficient of variation (CV) varies widely and using the ranged given by Wilding [40], only sand, pHw and pHKCl had CV of <15%, while all other properties had CV > 30% (**Table 2**).

Mean soil physicochemical properties for KHL wetland across pits and transects are presented in **Table 3**. An observation of the mean separation within transects at the KHL wetlands revealed that across transects one and two all soil properties examined were significantly different except pH-water, pH-KCl and total N as well as pHKCl and TN that were not significantly different. An examination of the soil properties across transect three in KHL showed that there all soil properties were not significantly different except pH-water. Mean separation of soil micronutrients in KHL wetlands is presented in **Table 3**. The results showed that the Cu, Fe, Zn and


*N = number of observations, Std dev = standard deviation, Std err = standard error, CV = coefficient of variation, OC = organic carbon (%), SOM = soil organic matter(%), BD = bulk density (g/cm3 ), pHW = pH in water, pHKCl = pH in potassium chloride, ΔpH = change in pH,Tot N = total nitrogen(%), AvP = available phosphorus (mg/L), C-pool = carbon pool (kg C/cm<sup>2</sup> ) CEC = cation exchange capacity (cmol/kg), Na = sodium (cmol/kg), Ca = calcium (cmol/kg), Mg = magnesium (cmol/kg), K = potassium (cmol/kg), SSCR = sand to silt + clay ratio.*

#### **Table 2.**

*Summary statistics of the soil properties at* Khalong-la-lithunya *and Ha-Matela wetlands.*


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


**Table 3.**

*matter, OC = organic carbon, Cpool = carbon pool.*

*Mean separation for* Khalong-la-Lithun*y*a *soil physico-chemical properties across pits and transects.*

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

Mn ranged between 0.06–1.49 mg/L, 0.12–2.89 mg/L, 0.04 mg/L and 0.35 mg/L and 4.62–22.15 mg/L. All were statistically significantly different. Ewing et al., [41] reported that wetlands in Juniper Bay were crop production had occurred had in their surface horizons significantly greater amounts of extractable P, Ca, Mg, Mn, Zn, and Cu, along with higher base saturation and pH than soils in the reference bays. Similarly, Zedler and Kercher [16] and Kotze et al. [11] reported that the nutrient-rich soils resulting from agricultural production make wetland restoration more difficult. Thus, the reasons for the slow rate of restoration of the KHL wetlands may be attributed to higher contents of base cations in the surface and subsoils compared to the HM wetlands where no restoration efforts are yet to be embarked upon. Bedford et al., [42], Reddy et al., [43] and Harvey et al. [9] also reported that higher nutrient levels affect restoration success by decreasing plant diversity, and potentially increasing the solubility and export of P from wetlands to downstream waters once anaerobic soil conditions have been restored.

### **3.2 Summary statistics and characteristics of the restored wetland (***Ha-Matela***) (HM)**

The most dominant soil separates in the texture of Ha-Matela wetland soils is silt and it ranged between 14 and 73% with a mean of 32.86 1.65%; sand content ranges between 9.0 and 65.10% with a mean of 37.22 1.34% and clay ranged between 10.7 and 62.10% with a mean of 10.50 1.37% (**Table 2**). The SOC content ranged from 0.23 to 3.21% and has a mean of 2.14 0.01% and the pH which is acidic ranged between 4.23 and 6.15 pH-water and between 3.54 and 5.34 pH-KCl. The CEC and the exchangeable cations (K, Ca, Mg and Na) were very low when compared with the restored wetlands (**Table 2**). This suggests that restoration of wetlands favored built-up of base cations in KHL wetlands as compared to the HM wetlands which are still not being restored. These ions, except for Na, are nutrients for forest ecosystems and vegetation and are thus of importance for the sustainability of the ecosystem [44, 45]. The results of the CVs showed that only a few properties (i.e. pH-water, pH-KCl, BD and CEC had CVs of <15% according to the classification of Wilding [40]. Other soil properties had CVs of >30% suggesting that these are highly variable (**Table 2**). The results of the silt:clay ratios also showed that the PM is mixed (0.00–5.99) and are at different age of weathering (Asamoa 1973; [39]). The SOC-pool in the HM wetlands were not significantly different from those at KHL wetlands and it ranged between 1.44 and 38.67 kg cm<sup>2</sup> with a mean of 11.14 0.78 kg cm2 .

Mean soil physicochemical properties, for *Ha-Matela* wetland, across pits and transects are presented in **Table 4**. The results indicated that the soils are moderately to strongly acidic (pHKCl of 4.94–3.95) and their CEC (≈0.175 cmolc/kg); base cations (Mg ≈ 0.15 mg/L, Ca = 0.2–1.45 mg/L and K ≈ 0.5 mg/L) and total nitrogen (≈0.001 mg/L) are very low, while available phosphorus content (1.9–8.3 mg/L) raises no concern. They are also shown to be less prone to aggregate dispersion as their sodium content (0.01–1.15 mg/L) is very low. Mean separation for micronutrients' content of *Ha-Matela* wetlands is also presented in **Table 4**. The results of the micronutrients status in both wetlands are presented in **Table 5** and showed that the soils contain varying concentrations of micronutrients within and across transects. The Cu content was significantly different ranged between 0.06 and 1.49 mg/L (KHL) and in HM wetland between 1.29 and 4.31 mg/L, but higher compared to the former wetland. Similarly, the Fe contents ranged between 0.2 and 2.89 mg/L IN (KHL), while in HM it ranged between 10.46 and 34.79 mg/L, though higher (**Table 5**). The Zn and Mn contents in HM were significantly different within and across sites, but slightly higher in HM compared to KHL wetlands.


**Table 4.** *Mean separation*

 *for*

Ha-Matela *soil across pits and transects.*

#### *Soil Science - Emerging Technologies, Global Perspectives and Applications*


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

#### **Table 5.**

*Mean separation for* Khalong-la Lithunya *and* Ha-Matela *soil micronutrients.*

#### **Figure 3.**

*Mean separation of selected properties from both restored and non-restored wetlands.*
