Assessing the effect of land use types on soil physical and chemical properties in sito kebele, dedo district, jimma zone, oromia region, southwest Ethiopia.

Abstract

The study was conducted at the Sito kebele, which is located in the Dedo District of Jimma zone, Oromia Region. The aims of the study were to investigate the influence of land use systems on the degree and directions of quality of soil resources and within and among land use types and soil depth. The influence of land use systems on soil properties were analyzed using the analysis of variance general linear model procedure of SAS software. Mean differences due to land use, soil depth and their interaction effect were identified. The results showed that most of the soil physicochemical properties varied with land use systems as well as soil depth. For instance soil texture (sand, and clay), bulk density, total porosity, pH (H 2 O), OM, Total N, available P, CEC, exchangeable K, exchangeable Na, exchangeable acidity and available micronutrient(Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu) studied were significantly affected (P ≤ 0.05 by land use. In contrast, particle density, exchangeable Ca and Mg were not significantly (P > 0.05) affected by different due to land use. Bulk density increased from 1.20 g cm -3 in grazed soils to 1.31 g cm -3 in cultivated land soils. Clay fractions increased from 29.05% in the grazing lands to 33.15% in the soils of the cultivated land .Soil pH-H2 O decreased from 5.86 to 4.9 in grazed to the cultivated land soils. The soil attributes under the cultivated land showed an overall change towards the direction of loss of its fertility compared to the adjacent grazing land soils