Abstract
Assessing land use induced changes in soil properties is essential for addressing the issues of land use planning and sustainable land productivity in highlands of Ethiopia. The surface and profile soil samples were collected from forest (FL) cultivated (CL) and grass/pasture lands (GL) in Doko Yoyira (DY), Aiezo Tula (AT) and Gendona Gembela (GG) in Chencha district, Gamo-Gofa zone in May 2014, which aims to assess different soil physicochemical properties. At surface layer of 0-20 cm, the results did not show any significant difference (P<0.05) for land uses and sites. However, differences were noticed for land uses and sites in terms of certain soil characteristics determined on soil profile basis. The cultivated soils contained less soil organic carbon and total nitrogen compared to forest and grasslands. Hence, forest and grassland systems could maintain organic carbon and nitrogen stocks in the soils. The findings have implications for developing sound land use policy to combat on ongoing soil degradation in the area. Key words: Land use, soil physicochemical, profile, surface.  
Highlights
Ethiopia’s economy is agricultural with more than 80% of the country's population employed in this sector
The results indicated that chemical properties; pH, Cation exchange capacity (CEC), available K, TN, OC and C: N did not show significant differences among land uses at 0 to 20 cm soil depth (Table 2)
The reason might be excessive leaching, low contribution of litter fall for decomposition and high uptake of this nutrient by plant species which was confirmed with results reported by Limenih ( 2004) under E. species than CL
Summary
Ethiopia’s economy is agricultural with more than 80% of the country's population employed in this sector. This is constrained by the deteriorating natural resource base, especially in the highlands where 80% of the population lives (Abera and Belachew, 2011). Soil degradation in the form of plant nutrient depletion is the major agro-ecosystem problem in these areas. Rapid increase in Ethiopia population demands more production of food, fodder, fiber and fuel from the land. To meet these needs, vast tracts of land are being put under intensive cropping, and large areas of grasslands are being overgrazed and degraded in highlands of Ethiopia. Widespread poor agricultural activities, including intensive tillage, complete removal of crop residues, low levels of fertilizer application, lack of appropriate soil conservation measures and cropping practice are contributing factors (Haile et al, 2014)
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