Abstract
To monitor soil and land degradation and identify climate-resilient land management practices, it is pertinent to understand land use influences on soil structure and soil organic carbon (SOC). This study was aimed to evaluate land use impacts on aggregate stability and soil organic carbon (SOC) stock to the upper 30 cm depth of shrub land (SL), grass land (GL) and cultivated land (CL) in northern Ethiopia. Dry and wet sieving approaches were applied to fractionate aggregates into coarse macro-aggregates (> 2 mm), meso-aggregates (2–0.25 mm) and micro-aggregates (< 0.25 mm). The size distribution of soil aggregates showed distinct variations across land uses: coarse macro-aggregates were higher in SL soils, meso-aggregates in GL, but micro-aggregates in CL soils. Percent by weight of dry stable aggregates, water stable aggregates, mean weight diameter, geometric mean diameter, aggregation ratio and structural stability index followed the increasing sequence of SL > GL > CL, while aggregate deterioration index displayed the reverse order of SL < GL < CL. Soils in shrub land followed by those in grass land had greater potential to store carbon than soils in cultivated land. The mean SOC stock estimated to top 30 cm depth of the area was 49.06 Mg ha−1. Overall, land use types had plausible influences on structural stability and carbon sequestration potential of soils in the study area. Cultivated lands had poorly structured soils with low SOC stock, thus asking proper management measures.
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Kahsay, A., Haile, M., Gebresamuel, G. et al. Structural stability and organic carbon stock of soils under three land use systems from semi-arid area of northern Ethiopia. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-024-05684-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-024-05684-8