ISSN 2756-3251
Advanced Journal of Environmental Science and Technology ISSN 2756-3251, Vol. 14 (5), pp. 001-008, May, 2023. © International Scholars Journals
Full Length Research Paper
Soil Physicochemical Properties under Different Land Use Systems in Barkachha, Mirzapur District, Varanasi, India
Weldesemayat Gorems1* and Nandita Goshal2
1Department of Wildlife and Protected Area Management, Wondo Genet College of Forestry and Natural Resource, Hawassa University, P. O. Box 128, Shashemene, Ethiopia. *Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected].
2Centre of Advanced Study in Botany, Department of Botany, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi-221005 (U.P.), India.
Accepted 15 April, 2023
Abstract
Types of land use practice significantly affect the soil physico-chemical properties. Four different land use types were selected (natural forest, bamboo plantation, degraded forest and agricultural land) to analyze the effect of land uses change on soil chemical and physical properties. Among all land use pattern, the highest water holding capacity (40.06±0.74%), porosity (0.539±0.011%), soil macro-aggregates (64.16±2.64%), soil organic carbon (0.84±0.054%) and soil total nitrogen (0.123±0.013%) were found to be under natural forest, closely followed in decreasing order by bamboo plantation, degraded forest and agricultural land. Unlikely, bamboo plantation was higher in moisture content (2.78±0.23%), whereas agricultural land was lower in moisture content (2.14±0.5%), though no significant differences were observed among land use types. Soil organic carbon was significantly affected by different land use practices. In contrast to this, agricultural land was higher in bulk density (1.37±0.0193 g/cm3) whereas natural forest was lower in bulk density (1.220±0.0288 g/cm3). Bulk density, soil organic carbon, soil total nitrogen, water holding capacity and porosity were significantly affected by land use changes. Furthermore, the correlation of analysis showed that soil organic carbon, soil total nitrogen, moisture content, porosity, water holding capacity, soil macro aggregates were positively correlated to each other and negatively correlated with bulk density, meso and micro soil aggregates at p<0.05. The results of this study will help to develop future plan about land use and soil management regarding soil carbon dynamics and climate change mitigation.
Key words: Land use type, land use change, soil physico-chemical properties.