Changes evaluation of some soil properties under effects of management characteristics (Case study: forests of Gisom region of Guilan province)

The aim of this study was to investigate some soil properties that were affected by management including logging, tourism and forest reserve in Guilan province, Iran. In each of the studied area, five transects with a length of 200 meters, perpendicular to the road, were selected and soil samples at 10, 50, 100, 150, and 200-meters distances from the road were gathered. In each transect, five samples of 25 m2 were selected. Measured soil properties were consisted of bulk density, porosity, pH, organic carbon, and microbial respiration. The results showed that with increasing distance from the road, the mean of bulk density in the area of logging, tourism and forest reserve decreased from 1.64 to 1.10, 1.33 to 1.07 and 1.11 to 1.08 gr/cm3, respectively, and mean of pH decreased from 6.96 to 5.48, 6.57 to 5.48 and 4.88 to 4.56, respectively. The highest and lowest levels of organic carbon and rate of microbial respiration were observed in the control and logging areas, respectively. The results of analysis of variance showed that there is a significant difference between all soil properties in the sampled areas and different road distances. Mean comparison also showed that there was a significant difference between the mean of soil properties in the control area with the logging and tourism areas. The results of this study showed that the type of management of natural areas may have different destructive effects on soil properties.