Effect of Land use Types on Soil Organic Carbon Stock at Sire Morose Sub Watershed, Hidabu Abote District of North Shoa Zone, Central Highland of Ethiopia

Dereje Girma,Lemma Wogi,Samuel Feyissa

doi:10.11648/j.sr.20200801.11

Abstract

Information about effects of different land use types on soil organic carbon stock is crucial for best land management practices and combating climate change and enhancing ecological restoration. The study was aimed to estimate the effect of land use types on soil organic carbon stock at sire morose sub watershed Hidbuabote district Ethiopia. Three land use types were selected from the sub watershed (Forest, grazing and cultivated land). Undisturbed core and disturbed composite soil samples were collected randomly from three sites with three replications from each land use type at two varying depths (0-20cm and 20-40cm) and subjected to laboratory soil analysis. Heterogeneity in soil C storage was observed across land use types and along soil depth due to disparity in spatial distribution of soil C densities arising from the influences of variations in land use types and management practices. Accordingly, the total mean values soil organic carbon stocks (SOCS) for forest land was 85.97Mg/ha, which was higher than that of grazing land (83.45Mg/ha) and the lowest being that of cultivated land (49.54Mg/ha). Moreover, the average CO2e sink was 315.51 Mg ha-1, 306.26 Mg ha-1 and 181.81Mg ha-1 in soil of the forest, grazing and cultivated land, respectively. Relatively the result shows potential contribution of forestland use types to enhance soil organic carbon stocks and environmental protection.

Highlights

Land use change is one of the major causes of soil erosion and subsequent loss of soil organic carbon in the ecosystem [17]
The effects of soil depth and land use types on soil carbon stock have not been studied in the study are
Three land uses were selected from the sub watershed (Forest, grazing and cultivated lands), and Global Positioning System (GPS) and clinometers were used to identify the geographical locations and slopes of the sampling sites, respectively

Summary

Introduction

Land use change is one of the major causes of soil erosion and subsequent loss of soil organic carbon in the ecosystem [17]. Soil carbon is primarily influenced by plant production through presence of microclimates, litter quality and carbon pathways and these factors affect rate of decomposition, which in turn influence nutrient availability for plant uptake, and carbon emissions released to the air [12]. Land use dynamics governs the fate of SOC storage potential on global basis there by determining the state of climate change [11]. Changes in land use result in significant changes of net primary production, species composition, stand age, rooting distribution and quantity of litter and these factors affect SOC storage dynamics, either mitigating or aggravating climate change

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Conclusion