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Effect of Land Use Change on Soil Carbon Stock in Bubisa Watershed Adea Berga District, Central Ethiopia

Received: 22 July 2022    Accepted: 19 August 2022    Published: 16 September 2022
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Abstract

Land use change is one of the primary constraints affecting carbon stock in Ethiopia. The shift from natural forest and grazing lands to crop land is the main direction of change. Knowing this fact, a study was conducted in 2021/2022 to assess the effect of land use change on soil carbon stock in the study area. In order to achieve this objective three different land use types (crop, grazing and forest lands) were selected and twenty four (24) core and composite soil samples were collected from 0-20, 20-40, 40-60 and 60-80 cm to determine the soil carbon stock of each layer of land uses. The results of the study showed that land use change analysis applied for two periods (1981 - 2001 and 2001 – 2021) decreased soil OC and TN from 3.96 to 1.69% and from 0.22 to 0.17% in forest to crop land soils, respectively. The effect of land use change can be seen not only in terms of soil OC, but also in terms of climate change in which carbon stock and emission vary from one land use to the other land uses. SOC storage potential of crop land (5.88Mg/ha) was almost more than 3 times lower than that of forest land (20.8Mg/ha). From these findings, one can conclude that the forest land is the major reservoir of SOC and sinks of CO2e and plays a significant role in mitigating climate change. Based on the findings and conclusions of this study, it can be recommended that, huge potential of soil OC which affect global climate change, SOC storage improvement strategies should be incorporated in polices of green economy and SOC sequestration incentives should be encouraged. Furthermore, studies should be considered to provide more conclusive recommendation for having sustainable natural ecosystems and mitigated climate change.

Published in Science Frontiers (Volume 3, Issue 3)
DOI 10.11648/j.sf.20220303.14
Page(s) 118-126
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Land Use, Soil Physicochemical Properties, Carbon Stock, CO2 Sequestration

References
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  • APA Style

    Ajema Lemma, Tesfaye Wakgari. (2022). Effect of Land Use Change on Soil Carbon Stock in Bubisa Watershed Adea Berga District, Central Ethiopia. Science Frontiers, 3(3), 118-126. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sf.20220303.14

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    Ajema Lemma; Tesfaye Wakgari. Effect of Land Use Change on Soil Carbon Stock in Bubisa Watershed Adea Berga District, Central Ethiopia. Sci. Front. 2022, 3(3), 118-126. doi: 10.11648/j.sf.20220303.14

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    AMA Style

    Ajema Lemma, Tesfaye Wakgari. Effect of Land Use Change on Soil Carbon Stock in Bubisa Watershed Adea Berga District, Central Ethiopia. Sci Front. 2022;3(3):118-126. doi: 10.11648/j.sf.20220303.14

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  • @article{10.11648/j.sf.20220303.14,
      author = {Ajema Lemma and Tesfaye Wakgari},
      title = {Effect of Land Use Change on Soil Carbon Stock in Bubisa Watershed Adea Berga District, Central Ethiopia},
      journal = {Science Frontiers},
      volume = {3},
      number = {3},
      pages = {118-126},
      doi = {10.11648/j.sf.20220303.14},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sf.20220303.14},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.sf.20220303.14},
      abstract = {Land use change is one of the primary constraints affecting carbon stock in Ethiopia. The shift from natural forest and grazing lands to crop land is the main direction of change. Knowing this fact, a study was conducted in 2021/2022 to assess the effect of land use change on soil carbon stock in the study area. In order to achieve this objective three different land use types (crop, grazing and forest lands) were selected and twenty four (24) core and composite soil samples were collected from 0-20, 20-40, 40-60 and 60-80 cm to determine the soil carbon stock of each layer of land uses. The results of the study showed that land use change analysis applied for two periods (1981 - 2001 and 2001 – 2021) decreased soil OC and TN from 3.96 to 1.69% and from 0.22 to 0.17% in forest to crop land soils, respectively. The effect of land use change can be seen not only in terms of soil OC, but also in terms of climate change in which carbon stock and emission vary from one land use to the other land uses. SOC storage potential of crop land (5.88Mg/ha) was almost more than 3 times lower than that of forest land (20.8Mg/ha). From these findings, one can conclude that the forest land is the major reservoir of SOC and sinks of CO2e and plays a significant role in mitigating climate change. Based on the findings and conclusions of this study, it can be recommended that, huge potential of soil OC which affect global climate change, SOC storage improvement strategies should be incorporated in polices of green economy and SOC sequestration incentives should be encouraged. Furthermore, studies should be considered to provide more conclusive recommendation for having sustainable natural ecosystems and mitigated climate change.},
     year = {2022}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Effect of Land Use Change on Soil Carbon Stock in Bubisa Watershed Adea Berga District, Central Ethiopia
    AU  - Ajema Lemma
    AU  - Tesfaye Wakgari
    Y1  - 2022/09/16
    PY  - 2022
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sf.20220303.14
    DO  - 10.11648/j.sf.20220303.14
    T2  - Science Frontiers
    JF  - Science Frontiers
    JO  - Science Frontiers
    SP  - 118
    EP  - 126
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2994-7030
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sf.20220303.14
    AB  - Land use change is one of the primary constraints affecting carbon stock in Ethiopia. The shift from natural forest and grazing lands to crop land is the main direction of change. Knowing this fact, a study was conducted in 2021/2022 to assess the effect of land use change on soil carbon stock in the study area. In order to achieve this objective three different land use types (crop, grazing and forest lands) were selected and twenty four (24) core and composite soil samples were collected from 0-20, 20-40, 40-60 and 60-80 cm to determine the soil carbon stock of each layer of land uses. The results of the study showed that land use change analysis applied for two periods (1981 - 2001 and 2001 – 2021) decreased soil OC and TN from 3.96 to 1.69% and from 0.22 to 0.17% in forest to crop land soils, respectively. The effect of land use change can be seen not only in terms of soil OC, but also in terms of climate change in which carbon stock and emission vary from one land use to the other land uses. SOC storage potential of crop land (5.88Mg/ha) was almost more than 3 times lower than that of forest land (20.8Mg/ha). From these findings, one can conclude that the forest land is the major reservoir of SOC and sinks of CO2e and plays a significant role in mitigating climate change. Based on the findings and conclusions of this study, it can be recommended that, huge potential of soil OC which affect global climate change, SOC storage improvement strategies should be incorporated in polices of green economy and SOC sequestration incentives should be encouraged. Furthermore, studies should be considered to provide more conclusive recommendation for having sustainable natural ecosystems and mitigated climate change.
    VL  - 3
    IS  - 3
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Oromia Agricultural Research Institute, Fitche Agricultural Research Center, Fitche, Ethiopia

  • Department of Natural Resource Management, Ambo University, Ambo, Ethiopia

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