Abstract:
Land use change is one of the most important factors influencing soil properties, and evaluating how land use changes affect soil characteristics is crucial for addressing the issue of sustainable land productivity. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the effect of land use change and depth on selected soil properties in Fagita Lekoma district. The land use change was analyzed using Landsat image in the years of 1992, 2007 and 2023, and Google Earth Engine platform was utilized. Purposive sampling was employed to select kebele and land uses, and 18 disturbed composite and undisturbed core soil samples were collected from crop land, acacia decurrens, and eucalyptus camaldulensis plantations at 0–20 and 20–40 cm depths. For the determination of studied soil properties, standard laboratory procedures were employed. The land use land cover analysis result showed that there was land use change in the study area between 1992 to 2023 years; where the natural forest, crop land and grazing land declined by 10.9%, 4.7% and 4.4% whereas, plantation and settlement increased by 14.6% and 5.4%, respectively. The soil analysis results indicated that land use types and soil depths significantly (p < 0.01 and p < 0.05) influenced the studied soil parameters. The higher mean values of pH (H2O) and pH (KCl) and lower values of exchangeable acidity (ExAci) and exchangeable aluminum (ExAl) were recorded in the acacia decurrens. Organic matter (OM), organic carbon (OC), soil organic carbon stock (SOCS), and micronutrients (Fe, Mn, Zn, and Cu) were higher in the acacia deccurens, whereas bulk density (BD) was lower in this land use. The higher mean values of ExAci, ExAl and BD were found under the crop land. OM, OC, SOCS, and (Fe, Mn, Zn, and Cu) were lower in the crop land. In all land use types, the values of ExAci, ExAl, OM, OC, SOCS, and (Fe, Mn, Zn, and Cu) decreased with soil depth, whereas pH and BD increased. The findings of this study showed that shifting crop land into acacia deccurens by smallholder farmers reduce the problem of soil acidity, increase micronutrient availability and SOCS. Therefore, the plantation system should be encouraged in the degraded, acidic crop lands in the study area.
