Variation of soil organic carbon and nitrogen stocks in forest and agricultural land use in Chure landscape, Nepal
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46325/afj.v6i2.139Keywords:
land use, soil depth, soil nitrogen, soil organic carbonAbstract
The importance of Soil inorganic carbon and nitrogen storage is globally recognized. In this context, a study was conducted to analyze the variability of soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil nitrogen (N) stocks in forest and agricultural land in Chure region of Makawanpur district in Bagmati province, Nepal. Incremental soil depths method was applied to collect bulk soil samples and soil samples were taken from soil profile up to 60 cm depth at the interval of 20 cm. The study found higher soil organic carbon content (1.34±0.20%) and soil N content (0.20±0.06%) in forest land than in agricultural land use (0.70±0.11% and 0.07 ±0.03%) respectively. Accordingly, both SOC stock (81.54±15.17 tha-1) and N stock (12.38±3.56 t ha-1) were found higher in forest land than agricultural land (64.73±10.90 tha-1 and 8.28 ±2.90 t ha-1). These findings show that forest soils have good potential to soil carbon sequestration. Sustainable land use management can improve both SOC and N stocks that is important for ecological sustainability and climate change mitigation.
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