Soil Characteristics Under Different Land Use Practices in Mangochar, Kalat District, Balochistan, Pakistan

Abstract

Land use influence soil quality of rangelands. Taking arid rangeland of Mangochar, Balochistan, Pakistan into consideration, this study investigated soil quality such as concentration of soil organic matter (SOM), soil aggregation, concentration of mineral nitrogen (N) and concentration of soluble inorganic phosphorus (P) of sites with various land use history. The sampling sites were as follows; site under unmanaged grazing, site inaccessible for grazing due to remoteness from pastoralists, field under monocropping of tomato since last 30 years and under application of organic fertilizer as cow manure, grapes field of approximately 27 years of age and under application of organic fertilizer as cow manure, apple orchards of approximately 15 and 30 years of age and under conventional farming system. Although number of native plant species and their abundance m-2 was greater in ungrazed site as compared to grazed site, there was no significant difference in soil quality. Soils of these sites collected from sieves of 2 mm and 1 mm mesh sizes had pebbles and sand with no obvious clay or silt particles. The concentration of SOM was greater in soils of agricultural fields than ungrazed site while the higher concentration was observed for the soil from tomato field. The soils of agricultural fields also showed aggregates (rather than pebbles and sand particles) of > 2 mm, 1- 2 mm and 0.5 mm sizes. The soil of tomato field also had significantly higher pH and soluble mineral P than soils from grazed and ungrazed sites.