Abstract
This study was conducted in Arsi Negelle woreda of West Arsi Zone, Oromia regional state. The main objective of the study was to investigate the impacts of soil bund on soil physical and chemical properties in Arsi Negelle woreda. The soil data was collected from sites namely: lowland, midland and highland and from soil bunds aged >4 years, 4years) at both soil sampling depths. Aged soil bunds (treated plots) showed a significant changes on soil physical and chemical properties than control plots. The mean of total nitrogen (TN), available phosphorous (AP) and organic carbon contents were recorded significantly higher (p≤ 0.05) in lowland than highland at both soil sampling depths. In generally, ages of soil bunds and sites had significant effect on many soil physical and chemical properties. The sites and ages interaction had significant effect on bulk density (BD) at both depths at P ≤ 0.05. In conclusion, this study showed that soil bunds had significant effect on many physical and chemical properties of soil in the study area. Key words: Soil bund, bulk density, saturated hydraulic conductivity, electrical conductivity, total nitrogen, organic carbon.
Highlights
Natural resource degradation and land degradation in particular has negative impact on the economy of developing countries including Ethiopia
Continuous cultivation with little protection measures exacerbated the level of soil erosion, and land productivity had declined significantly and farmers were cultivating the land without giving more attention to soil maintenances in the area
The study was conducted in Arsi Negelle woreda, which is located at 225 km south of the Addis Ababa
Summary
Natural resource degradation and land degradation in particular has negative impact on the economy of developing countries including Ethiopia. Soil erosion brings changes in physical properties such as texture, infiltration rate, bulk density, available water holding capacity and depth of favorable root growth. These changes has negative effect on most of the soil ecological function and services (Schjonning et al, 2009). Continuous cultivation with little protection measures exacerbated the level of soil erosion, and land productivity had declined significantly and farmers were cultivating the land without giving more attention to soil maintenances in the area This caused the loss of top soil and reduced productivity capacity of the land and economy of the country. To analyze the impacts of sites on physical and chemical properties
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