Grazing Pressure Effect on Soil Physical and Chemical Characteristics and Vegetation Cover in Vaz Watershed, Mazandaran Province

Vegetation cover of Rangelands with have effective role in water reserve and soil conservation. Grazing by domesticated animals in rangelands protect desirable and palatable species and sustainable production in rangeland ecosystem. In order to investigation grazing effects on soil infiltrations and physical-chemical properties an experiment was conducted at three regions, consisted of reference, key and critical areas for this reason, rangelands part of Vaz watershed in Mazandaran province Iran. After field survey, three areas with different grazing intensity were determined and after study of vegetation cover, the experiment of water infiltration in soil carried out using of double ring method with suitable replications and then sampling of soil was done for measurement of some physical and chemical characteristics. For infiltration an infiltration apparatus based on kastiakov equation were used to determinacy cumulative infiltration and temporal mean, rate and time of final infiltrations. Finally, Results of three areas were compared together. Results of ANOVA showed that the amount of the mentioned traits were highest, lowest and intermediate at closed, critical and key areas, respectively. Results of soil factors also indicated that interaction effect between treatment and year had significant effect on bulk density (p≤ 0.01) and Ca and P (p≤ 0.05).