Abstract
This study was conducted to determine the changes in the soil carbon stocks as influenced by land use in a humid zone of Deylaman district (10,876 ha), a mountainous region of northern Iran. For this, land use maps were produced from TM and ETM+ images for 1985, 2000 and 2010 years; and this was supplemented by field measurement of soil carbon in 2010. The results showed that the mean soil organic carbon (SOC) density was 6.7±1.8 kg C m−2, 5.2±3.4 kg C m−2 and 3.2±1.8 kg C m−2 for 0–20 cm soil layer and 4.8±1.9 kg C m−2, 3.1±2 kg C m−2 and 2.7±1.8 kg C m−2 for 20–40 cm soil layer in forest, rangeland and cultivated land, respectively. During the past 25 years, 14.4% of the forest area had been converted to rangeland; and 28.4% of rangelands had been converted to cultivated land. According to the historical land use changes in the study area, the highest loss of SOC stocks resulted from the conversion of the forest to rangeland (0.45×104 Mg C in 0–40 cm depth layer); and the conversion of rangeland to cultivated land (0.37×104 Mg C in 0–40 cm), which typically led to the loss of soil carbon in the area studied. The knowledge on the historical land use changes and its influence on overall SOC stocks could be helpful for making management decision for farmers and policy managers in the future, for enhancing the potential of C sequestration in northern Iran.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alphan H, Doygun H, Unlukaplan YI (2008) Post-classification of land cover using multi temporal Landsat and ASTER imagery: the case of Kahramanmaras, Turkey. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 151(1–4): 327–336. DOI: 10.1007/s10661-008-0274
Alvaro-Fuentes J, Paustian K (2011) Potential soil carbon sequestration in a semiarid Mediterranean agroecosystem under climate change: quantifying management and climate effects. Plant and Soil 338: 261–272. DOI: 10.1007/s11104-010-0304-7
Ayoubi S, Khoramli F, Sahrawat KL, Rodrigues de Lima AC (2011) Assessing Impacts of Land Use Change on Soil Quality Indicators in a Loessial Soil in Golestan Province, Iran, Northern Iran. Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology 13(5): 727–742.
Ayoubi S, Mokhtari Karchegani P, Mosaddeghi MR, Honarjoo N (2012) Soil aggregation and organic carbon as affected by topography and land use change in western Iran. Soil & Tillage Research 121: 18–26. DOI: 10.1016/j.still.2012.01.011
Ayoubi S, Zamani S, Khormali F (2007) Spatial variability of some soil properties for site specific farming in northern Iran. International Journal of Plant Production 1: 225–236.
Brannstrom C, Filippi AM (2008) Remote classification of Cerrado (Savanna) and agricultural land covers in northeastern Brazil. Geocarto International 23: 109–134. DOI: 10.1080/10106040701596767
Congalton RG, Green K (1999) Assessing the accuracy of remotely sensed data: principles and practices. New York. Lewis Publishers. p 137.
Coppin P, Jonckheere I, Nackaerts K, et al. (2004) Digital change detection methods in ecosystem monitoring: a review. International Journal Remote Sensing 25(9): 1565–1596.
Fang X, Xue Z, Li B, An S (2012) Soil organic carbon distribution in relation to land use and its storage in a small watershed of the Loess Plateau, China. Catena 88: 6–13. DOI: 10.1016/j.catena.2011.07.012
Goovaerts P (1997) Geostatistics for Natural Resources Evaluation. New York. Oxford University Press. p 483.
Guindon B, Zhang Y, Dillabaurgh C (2004) Landsat urban mapping based on a combined spectral-spatial methodology. Remote sensing of environment 92: 218–232. DOI:10.1016/j.rse.2004.06.015
Guo LB, Gifford RM (2002) Soil carbon stocks and land use change: a meta analysis. Global Change Biology 8(4): 345–360. DOI:10.1046/j.1354-1013.2002.00486.x
Houghton RA (2003) Revised estimates of the annual net flux of carbon to the atmosphere from changes in land use and land management 1850–2000. Tellus B 55(2): 378–390. DOI: 10.1034/j.1600-0889.2003.01450.x
Isaaks EH, Srivastava RM (1989) Applied Geostatistics. New York. Oxford University Press. p 561.
Karchegani MP, Ayoubi S, Mosaddeghi MR, Honarjoo N (2012) Soil Organic Carbon Pools in Particle-Size Fractions as Affected by Slope Gradient and Land Use Change in Hilly Regions, Western Iran. Journal of Mountain Science 9: 87–95. DOI: 10.1007/s11629-012-2211-2
Khormali F, Ajami M, (2011) Pedogenetic investigation of soil degradation on a deforested loess hillslope of Golestan Province, Northern Iran. Geoderma 167–168: 274–283. DOI:10.1016/j.geoderma.2011.07.030
Khormali F, Ajami M, Ayoubi Sh, et al. (2009) Role of deforestation and hillslope position on soil quality attributes of loess-derived soils in Golestan Province, Iran. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 134(3–4): 178–189. DOI: 10.1016/j.agee.2009.06.017
Kravchenko AN (2003) Influence of spatial structure on accuracy of interpolation methods. Soil Science Society of America Journal 67: 1564–1571.
Lal R (2002) Soil carbon dynamics in cultivated land and rangeland. Environmental Pollution 116: 353–362.
Lunetta RS, Knight JF, Ediriwickrema J, et al. (2006) Worthy Land-cover change detection using multi-temporal MODIS NDVI data, Remote Sensing of Environment 105: 142–154. doi:10.1016/j.rse.2006.06.018
Martin D, Lal T, Sachdev CB, Sharma JP (2010) Soil organic carbon storage changes with climate change, landform and land use conditions in Garhwal hills of the Indian Himalayan mountains. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 138: 64–73. DOI:10.1016/j.agee.2010.04.001
Marvie Mohadjer MR (2004) Silviculture of the oriental beech (Fagus orientalis Lipsky); experiences made in Caspian forests, north of Iran. In: Proceedings from the 7th International beech Symposium. IUFRO Research Group. Tehran, Iran. pp. 13–15.
McGrath D, Zhang C (2003) Spatial distribution of soil organic carbon concentrations in grassland of Ireland. Applied Geochemistry 18: 1629–1639. DOI:10.1016/S0883-2927(03)00045-3
Mendoza-Vega J, Karltun E, Olsson M (2003) Estimations of amounts of soil organic carbon and fine root carbon in land use and land cover classes, and soil types of Chiapas highlands, Mexico. Forest Ecology and Management 177: 191–206
Mohammadi J, Shataee SH (2010) Possibility investigation of tree diversity mapping using Landsat ETM+ data in the Hyrcanian forests of Iran. Remote Sensing of Environment 114: 1504–1512. DOI:10.1016/j.rse.2010.02.004
Ogle SM, Paustian K (2005) Soil organic carbon as an indicator of environmental quality at the national scale: Inventory monitoring methods and policy relevance. Canadian Journal of Soil Science 85: 531–540.
Ostle NJ, Levy PE, Evans CD, Smith P (2009) UK land use and soil carbon sequestration. Land Use Policy 26S: S274–S283. DOI:10.1016/j.landusepol.2009.08.006
Phachomphon K, Dlamini P, Chaplot V (2010) Estimating carbon stocks at regional level using soil information and easily accessible auxiliary variables. Geoderma 155: 372–380. DOI:10.1016/j.Geoderma.2009.12.020
Poeplau C, Don A (2013) Sensitivity of soil organic carbon stocks and fractions to different land-use changes across Europe. Geoderma 192: 189–201. DOI:10.1016/j.Geoderma.2012.08.003
Pradhan R, Ghose MK, Jeyaram A (2010) Land Cover Classification of Remotely Sensed Satellite Data using Bayesian and Hybrid classifier. International Journal of Computer Applications 7: 1–4. DOI: 10.5120/1295-1783
Shahriari A, Khormali F, Kehl M, et al. (2011) Effect of a longterm cultivation and crop rotations on organic carbon in loess derived soils of Golestan Province, Northern Iran. International Journal of Plant Production 5: 147–152.
Sharma P, Rai SC (2007) Carbon sequestration with land-use cover change in a Himalayan watershed. Geoderma 139: 371–378. DOI:10.1016/j.Geoderma.2007.02.016
Sheldrick BH, Wang C (1993) Particle size distribution. In: Carter, M.R. (Ed.) Soil Sampling and Methods of Analysis. Canadian Society of Soil Science. USA. Lewis Publishers. p. 499.
Soil Survey Staff (1996) Soil survey laboratory methods manual. In: Soil Survey Investigations Report. USA. USDA-NRCS, p. 716.
SPSS WebAPP Framework (2005) Available from: http://www.spss.com/webapp/roi.htm.
Sun B, Zhou S, Zhao Q (2003) Evaluation of spatial and temporal changes of soil quality based on geostatistical analysis in the hill region of subtropical China. Geoderma 115: 85–99. DOI:10.1016/S0016-7061(03)00078-8
Stevens A, Van Wesemael B (2005) Soil organic carbon stock in the Belgian Ardennes as affected by afforestation and deforestation from 1868 to 2005. Forest Ecology and Management 256: 1527–1539. DOI:10.1016/j.foreco.2008.06. 041
Turner MG (1989) Landscape ecology: the effect of pattern and process. Annual Review of Ecological System 20: 171–197.
Walkley A, Black IA (1934) An examination of the Degtjareff method for determining organic carbon in soils: Effect of variations in digestion conditions and of inorganic soil constituents. Soil Science 63: 251–263.
Wang S, Wilkes A, Zhang Z, et al. (2011) Management and land use change effects on soil carbon in northern China’s grasslands: a synthesis. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 142: 329–340. DOI:10.1016/j.agee.2011.06.002
Wang YQ, Zhang XC, Zhang JL, Li SJ (2009) Spatial variability of soil organic carbon in a watershed on the Loess Plateau. Pedosphere 19: 486–495.
Watson RT, Noble LR, Bolin B, et al. (2000) Land Use, Landuse Change, and Forestry (A Special Report of the IPCC). England. Cambridge University Press. p 375.
Wei JB, Xiao DN, Zeng H, Fu YK (2008) Spatial variability of soil properties in relation to land use and topography in a typical small watershed of the black soil region, northeastern China. Environmental geology 53:1663–1672. DOI: 10.1007/s00254-007-0773-z
Wilson BR, Barnes P, Koent T, et al. (2010) Measurement and estimation of land-use effects on soil carbon and related properties on a basalt landscape of northern NSW, Australia. Australian Journal of Soil Research 48(5): 421–433. DOI: 10.1071/SR09146
Wislon BR, Koent T, Barnes P, et al. (2011) Soil carbon and related soil properties along a soil type and land-use intensity gradient, New South Wales, Australia. Soil Use and Management 27(4): 437–447. DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-2743.2011. 00357.x
Wu H, Guo Z, Peng C (2003) Distribution and storage of soil organic carbon in China. Global Biological Cycles 17(2): 1–11. DOI: 10.1029/2001GB001844
Yimer F, Ledin S, Abdelkadir A (2007) Changes in soil organic carbon and total nitrogen contents in three adjacent land use types in the Bale Mountains, south-eastern highlands of Ethiopia. Forest Ecology and Management 242: 337–342. DOI:10.1016/j.foreco.2007.01.087
Zanotta DC, Haertel V (2012) Gradual land cover change detection based on multitemporal fraction images. Pattern Recognition 45: 2927–2937. DOI:10.1016/j.patcog.2012.02.004
Zhu Q, Lin HS (2010) Comparing ordinary kriging and regression kriging for soil properties in contrasting landscapes. Pedosphere 20: 594–606.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Falahatkar, S., Hosseini, S.M., Salman Mahiny, A. et al. Soil organic carbon stock as affected by land use/cover changes in the humid region of northern Iran. J. Mt. Sci. 11, 507–518 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11629-013-2645-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11629-013-2645-1