Land use land cover changes on soil carbon stock in the Weshem Watershed, Ethiopia

Abstract

This improper land use extremely affected the Weshem Watershed in Ethiopia. Moreover, land use and land cover changes are linked with human intervention. The human intervention has caused disturbance of the natural ecosystem and decline of soil organic matter (SOM) and soil carbon stock. To under these changes we focused on the effects of the land use/cover changes, on soil carbon stock of the Agricultural land (A), forestland (F), and open grazing land (G) in the Weshem Watershed, Ethiopia over the three decades period of 2001, 2009 and 2017. Using integrated use of Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS).Soil samples were taken from each land use from 0-15 cm and 15-30 cm soil depths. Soils physicochemical were determined using standard laboratory procedures. The result showed that from 2001-2017 years forestland area showed an increasing trend as compared the agriculture and open grazing lands. The SOCst in forestland was higher than both agriculture and open grazing lands. Total organic matter and CEC were high and the soil bulk density was low in forestland as compared to other land use types. The highest soil SOCst (9.99 Mg ha-1) value was recorded in forest-to-forest land use changes, and low value of SOCst (5.78 Mg ha-1) was obtained in agriculture land. The lowest SOCst value was in land use changes from agriculture to agriculture.