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Land use changes and soil organic carbon and soil nitrogen in the North-western Highlands of Ethiopia
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Tegegne, Semahugne Workneh Glatzel, Gerhard |
| Copyright Year | 2008 |
| Abstract | The highlands of Northern Ethiopia are now largely devoid of forest vegetation, with almost all available land cultivated or used as pasture. In this study the effects of these land use types on some soil properties were investigated in the North-Western Highlands of Ethiopia (Addis Zemen, Tara Gedam area). Soil samples were collected from three adjacent, geographically similar plots with different land uses namely forest land, cultivated land, and grazing land, at 010cm and 1030cm soil depth. The forest land serves as reference for comparing changes in soil properties as the result of the land use change. In this diploma work statistical replication at the landscape scale was not possible, therefore the results are data sets to describe the situation and compare with results from other work. The soil in the forest showed significantly higher SOC and total N than cultivated land and grazing land in both depths. Soils in the cultivated land have higher SOC; where as soils under grazing have higher total N, statistical analysis did not indicate significance except for N in the lower depth. There are statistically significant differences for pH values across land uses, in both depths. Forest soils have higher pH values followed by cultivated land and grazing land. Bulk density was significantly different across the land uses, in the uppermost soil layer. Cultivated soils are the densest followed by soils under grazing land and forest soils. In the lower soil layer there is significant difference in bulk density values, between cultivated soils and other land uses. In accordance with general concepts of soil science higher values for C and N were recorded at 10 cm depth than at 30cm depth. The land use changes resulted in lower values for cultivated land and grazing land in almost all parameters compared to forest land. This emphasizes the fact that changes in land use have caused dramatic losses in soil fertility due to insufficient soil management, in particular replacement of lost nutrients by fertilization. The need for change in policies and strategies for sustainable land use that will integrate development with sustainable management of the environment is evident. |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://abstracts.boku.ac.at/download.php?dataset_id=6895&property_id=107 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
