Study Changes of Soil Physical and Chemical Characteristics in Three Adjacent Land Use Including Forest, Rangeland and Agricultural Land

Land use change has been imposed by increase of population on natural ecosystem. Soil, as a bed of plants, is one of the important components of ecosystems, and is affected by land use change. It is essential for a better management to be aware of soil properties alteration in different land uses. Therefore, in order to achieve that awareness, this study was conducted in Peshert- Kiasar. Systematic sampling was conducted in three neighboring sites of forest, rangeland and agricultural land. 49 soil samples from the depth of 0-30 cm were collected from each site. Then, soil properties including pH, EC, total nitrogen, organic carbon, soil texture (percentage of sand, silt and clay), soil moisture were measured. ANOVA with Duncan test (p< 0.01) using SPSS software was used in order to have a comparison of soil properties among different land uses. The results showed that carbon and nitrogen had relatively more and pH less alterations in the study area. Also, soil properties show significant different among various land uses.