Effects of land use changes on soil properties (Case Study: the Kechik catchment)

Land use change of natural ecosystems in to managed ecosystems has had negative effects on soil properties and known as a destructive factor of soil physical and chemical properties. Because of extensive land use changes in Iran and especially in the Golestan province, the effect of land use changes on soil properties, in the Kechik catchment was studied. In this study, some physical and chemical properties of soil in different land uses (forest: 612 ha, rangeland 1130 ha, and agriculture1806 ha) were determined and the difference between their means were studied. The results indicated that because of land use changes, soil texture has changed from sandy-clay-loam to sandy-loam and soil classes changed from clay with high plasticity class to clay with low plasticity class. The soil mean weight diameter has also decreased and agricultural soil has lower porosity and higher bulk density than other soils. The level of soil organic matter, organic nitrogen, and cation exchange capacity were meaningfully lower in agricultural soil as compared with other soils.