Some Soil physicochemical Characteristics Affected by Land Use Change at El Salaam Locality, South Darfur State, Sudan

Abstract

The study was carried out at El Salaam Locality, South Darfur State that located between 11 º 37' and 11º 80' northern latitudes, and 24º 62' and 25º 10' eastern longitudes. The aim of this study is to assess the effects of different land use types namely (woodland, cropland and fallow land) on physicochemical characteristics of soil. 48 soil samples were collected at 0-30 cm, 30-60 cm, and 60-90 cm depths of three different adjacent land uses conducted 12 profiles 4 for each sample site. Some soil physicochemical characteristics were tested. Statistical Analysis System SAS was applied for raw data analysis. One-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs) procedures were used to compare the means values between the different land use types. Separation of the means of the soil properties was performed using Duncan significance test {p<0.05}. There were significant differences in soil physicochemical characteristics within depth in same sites. Also the result showed that lands use type has significant effect on soil physicochemical characteristics. Moreover, there was high significant difference in soil bicarbonate value across LU types and the amount of bicarbonate in cropland increased more than fallow and woodland, Land use changes from woodland into cropland which resulted in significant decreases in silt content, aggregate stability, N, P, K, and organic matter, and with this change bulk density, sand content and pH value was increased significantly. The result concluded that land use change has significant effect on soil physicochemical characteristics and the follows period must be use to improve soil bulk density characteristic.