Impact of forest degradation, changing land use and building villas on some indicators of soil quality in the watershed, Golestan province

Study of soil quality indicators were considered as a useful method in the land use management. Population growth tends to high pressure to nature resource and change of the forest to other land uses and building in Golestan Province. Therefore this study to evaluate the effects of land use change and Villa building on some selected indicators of soil quality in the four land uses forest, pasture, cultivated and the urban, in two North and West geography aspect. Soil samples were taken of 0 to 30 cm depth and analysis of data taken by the method of completely randomized split-plot design with six replications. Soil quality indicators were containing physical, chemical and biological important parameters. Analysis data showed that the amount of organic carbon in both urban and cultivated land uses decreased 70 and 52 percent with respect to forest land use, and also bulk density from 13 to 35%; mean weight diameter from57 to 87%; total nitrogen from 39 to 60%; and microbial respiration 22 to 26% respectively in the urban and pasture land uses. The amount of carbonates increased in both urban and cultivated land uses 80 to 88%; electrical conductivity 42 to 84% with respect to forest and soil reaction in cultivated and pasture13 to 17 with respect to forest. Water infiltration of soil in the forest showed that decrease of soil and water quality because the high pollution in this resourced in the Gorgan the main city province. If this changing will be continued, the health of the ecosystem and especially human life in the cities will be changed.