Effect of protection based management on physical and chemical properties of soil in Arasbaran forests

In order to evaluate the applied management function on forest habitats, soil properties will provide useful information. In the present study, the effect of conservation based management on soil properties of Arasbaran forest habitats has been investigated. At first, the protected (Dizmar) and non-protected area of Arasbaran is divided into two altitude classes of 1000-1500 and 1500-2000 m.a.s.l. In each region, 22 soil samples (11 soil samples per elevation class) and totally 44 soil samples were taken at 0-30 cm depths of Northern aspect of these forests in the summer of 2016. Two-way ANOVA tests were carried out to evaluate the effects of 46-year conservation management treatment on the soil properties. The results showed that conservation management has significant effect on acidity (6.5%), Electrical Conductivity (EC) (1.45 ds/m), saturation moisture (77.5%), organic carbon (8.31%), clay (31.77%), sand (40%), N (0.84%), K (2475.86 ppm) and soil water content (17.42%). The mean of all these parameters except the sand are higher in protected region than the non-protected region. Also, the results indicate that in the Arasbaran area, the treatment of altitude from the sea level had significant effect on the bulk density and soil water content of the area, so that the mean bulk density in the low altitude is higher, whereas the mean soil water content is higher in upon altitude. The results of this research confirm the significant effect of conservation management approach on the soil quality indices of forest stands in the Arasbaran area.