Impact of Land use and Cover Change on Soil Organic Carbon and Total Nitrogen Storage in the Helmand River Basin
Keywords:
land use, organic carbon, total nitrogen, land cover changeAbstract
Land use/land cover changes, whether they are natural or anthropogenic, have both positive and negative impacts on hydrological processes, and water resources. This manuscript examines quantity and distribution of SOC and total N under various developmental stages of different land uses in Helmand river basin, Afghanistan. Soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (N) data were collected from Helmand river basin at a sampling depth of just 0–10, 0–20 and 20–40 cm. Soil organic carbon was lowest when the depth of the soil was increased. Highest total nitrogen of 0.87 g Kg-1 was recorded in natural grass land at 30-60 cm soil depth. DSOC of shrub land, forest, natural grassland, farmland and wetland were 6.58, 4.37, 7.01, 3.6 and 4.55 g cm-2. In the case of shrub land, highest DTN of 0.47 g cm-2 was found. The results demonstrate that the Land use/land cover changes caused significant losses in both SOC and TN storage in the river basin.
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