Soil Nutrient Variations Between Soil Depths (0-20cm & 20-40cm) Around Cement Factories, Ethiopia

This study was conducted with an aim to analyze the spatial variability of soil properties with depth under cement dust pollution areas. In soil there is nutrient variation in different depths, the variations can also affected by the anthropogenic factors. In this study, the nutrient variation between soil depths (0-20cm & 20-40cm) in cement dust pollution fields has been assessed. A total of 72 soil samples from 0-20cm & 20-40cm depths at different distance from the factories (0-500m, 500-1500m & ≈4000m) were collected and analyzed at Holeta agricultural chemistry laboratory. The parameters analyzed includes: major physico-chemical properties (Total Nitrogen, Organic carbon, Potassium, Phosphorus, pH, Moisture, soil texture, Bulk density, SO4-S and Cation Exchange Capacity). One-way ANOVA were used to compare the mean values between experimental fields (distance from the factory and soil depths) with SPSS statistical software. At p<0.05, there is no significance differences is occurs in the analyzed parameters between soil depths. However trends have shown that the PH, Organic carbon, Total Nitrogen, clay content, Phosphorus, Potassium and Sulfur level declines top to down (from 0-20cm to 20-40cm depths). The trends of Soil bulk density increased from top to bottom, this might be due to loading effect. Electric conductivity decline with soil depths near to the factory but increased top to bottom as far from the factories. From the data, the cement dust pollution can influence in nutrient variations and therefore need to monitor to regulate the pollution of emanate dust.