JWSS - Journal of Water and Soil Science

Soil quality is the permanent soil ability to function as a live system within ecosystem under different land uses. Investigating the impact of land use type on soil quality indicators could help to distinguish sustainable managements and therefore, to inhibit soil degradation. In order to evaluate the effect of different land uses on soil quality indicators, a research based on a randomized complete design in Rabor region, Kerman Province, Iran, was conducted. A total of 104 samples were taken from the soil surface (0-15 cm) of four land uses including: pasture (28 samples), forest (25 samples), agronomy (27 samples) and garden land use (24 samples). Soil quality indicators were measured as: soil organic matter, particulate organic matter, and bulk density, plant available water capacity, S index, cation exchange capacity (CEC), electrical conductivity (EC), soil pH, and phosphatase enzyme. According to the results, land use types had a significant effect on all indicators except S index at 1% probability level. The maximum amount of soil pH, bulk density and phosphatase enzyme was obtained from forest land use. On the other hand, the maximum amount of the other indicators was attained from the garden land use. Totally, garden land use, due to having high organic matter, could improve the soil quality. However, the pasture land use had the worst soil quality due to the weak cover and the low organic matter.