The effects of land-use/cover change on some soil physical and chemical properties in central Iran

Severe natural resources utilizations pose many hazards in
developing countries. Many stakeholders convert rangelands
to agricultural filed to achieve more immediate income.
This study aimed to investigate selected soil quality
indicators in various land uses in a semi-arid region in
central Iran. Soil samples were randomly collected from
surface (0 to 5 cm) and sub-surface (5 to 25 cm) soil layers
in good and poor rangelands, dry farmland and abandoned
land. The structural stability indices including
mean weight diameter (MWD), geometric mean diameter
(GMD) and median diameter (D50) of water-stable
aggregates in the collected soil samples were measured.
Results showed that the trend of changes in soil organic
matter was similar to soil aggregate stability in different
land uses in both soil layers. The studied properties of
good rangelands were significantly greater than other
land uses (P<0.05). Moreover that percent of macro-aggregates
(>0.25 mm) of the surface and sub-surface layers in
rangelands were significantly higher than dry farmlands
and abandoned lands (P<0.05). This finding indicates
the importance of maintaining and conserving native
rangeland (specially their surface soil) to prevent organic
matter loss, structure deterioration and soil erosion.

Author(s): Eftekhar Baranian Kabir, Hossein Bashari, Mehdi Bassiri, Mohammad Reza Mosaddeghi

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