THE IMPACT OF LAND USE PRACTICES ON SOIL ORGANIC CARBON STORAGE AND STRATIFICATION IN NORTHERN NIGERIA'S SEMI-ARID REGION
H. Hamza and B. M. Shehu, Volume 7 Issue 1, 2025 Pages 112-133, Published: 2025-10-27
Abstract
The stratification ratio (SR) is a good indicator of the quantitative evaluation of soil ecological functioning, which is interrelated with nutrient variation with depth, which is inter-related with nutrient cycles and agricultural productivity. However, the effects of the land use and depth on the SR of soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN) have received little attention. The current study collected sample by auguring from 0-20, 20-40, 40-60, 60cm soil depths disturbed and undisturbed core samples, (4 land use x 3 depth x 6 replicates = 72 soil samples) responses of the degree of OM stratification with soil depth expressed as a ratio, land use changes have received little attention, particularly in northern Nigeria. In this study, four land uses were selected: (acacia native vegetation arable and bare land) to examine soil OM stratification ratio. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of organic carbon and nitrogen stratification in Barema farm region on soil functions. Organic carbon (SOC) content decreased down the depth across all the land use. However, soils of acacia, native arable and bare land had SOC content (1.37, and 1.13, 1.12, and 0.91 g kg-1, respectively and depth 0-20, 20-40, 40-60, 60cm with SOC content of 1.25, 1.11, 1.04 g kg-1respectively).