Effect of Climate Change on Soil Organic Carbon Storage in Four Land Use Types in Abakaliki, South Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

Soil organic carbon (SOC) has been found to negatively impact the environmentEnvironment due to its emission of carbon (iv) oxide (CO2) a greenhouse gasGreenhouse gases with a serious effect on global climate change. A study was conducted to determine the effect of climate change on soilSoil organic carbon storageCarbon storage in four land useLand use types in the Abakaliki, south eastern NigeriaSoutheastern Nigeria. The four land useLand use types selected include managed forest plantation (MF), fallow land, grass land and continuously cultivated soil (CCS). Undisturbed and core samples were collected at three soil depths (0–20, 20–40 and 40–60 cm) and replicated five times for bulk density, total porosity, saturated hydraulic conductivity, particle size distribution, pH, organic carbonOrganic carbon, total nitrogen available phosphorus and exchangeable acidity. The results showed that the soils in the area were predominantly sandy loam and sandy clay loam in texture. Bulk density values were lowest in the fallow land and highest in the continuously cultivated soilSoil across the three depths. Saturated hydraulic conductivity values were highest in MF and lowest in CCS soil across the three depths. The pH of the soilsSoil was slightly acidic. Fallow land recorded the highest soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen and available phosphorus while continuously cultivated soilSoil had the lowest values for the soil nutrients at 0–20 cm. The result on total organic C storage showed that MF recorded the highest value (340.67 Mg C ha−1), while CCS recorded the lowest value (151.49 Mg C ha−1) across the three soil depths.