The effect of deforestation and land use change on ecophysiology indices of soil carbon and nitrogen

Carbon dioxide، methane and nitrous oxide are the most important greenhouse gases. The changes of these gases are mainly affected by the variability of carbon and nitrogen ecophysiology indices. In order to study the effect of deforestation and land use change on ecophysiology indices of soil carbon and nitrogen، three land uses including forest area (a less-destroyed stand covered by hornbeam and Persian iron tree species)، rangeland area (bare area covered by sparse herbaceous cover) and agricultural lands (cultivated by rice) were considered. Soil sampling was carried out as random systematic method (ten samples for each land use) from 0-10 and 10-20 cm depths. Soil bulk density، texture، moisture، pH، organic carbon، total nitrogen and ecophysiology indices (microbial respiration، carbon and nitrogen microbial biomass، metabolic quotient) were measured and calculated at the laboratory. The result of ANOVA indicated that the greater amounts of soil microbial respiration، carbon and nitrogen microbial biomass were found in first (1. 22، 665. 66 and 71. 32 mg/kg) and second (1. 10، 508. 44 and 56. 72 mg/kg) soil depths of forest area. The most values of metabolic quotient were devoted to first and second (4. 11 and 6. 23 μg CO2-C mg-1 MBC day-1) soil depths of agricultural area. The findings of this study cleared the effects of different land use on biological indices of soil quality. Following the forest land use change to other land uses، the soil biological qualities decreased.