Effect of Deforestation on the Status of Soil Fertility
Abstract
In Ethiopia, the soil's physicochemical composition is frequently altered through the transformation of natural forests to farmland, vast pastureland, and cultivated areas. Understanding the effect of deforestation on soil fertility is the main goal of this review. Farmland, grazing land, land for other uses, and unmanaged forests are the different land use types that were taken into account. This evaluation takes into account features of the soil, such as bulk density, soil texture, and soil physical characteristics, particularly soil moisture content. Contrarily, the chemical characteristics of the soil, such as pH, EC, CEC, soil organic carbon, total N, and accessible P, are taken into account when comparing the various land uses. In forestlands, there were greater levels of clay, Acidity, cation exchange capacity, exchangeable Ca2+, and the amount of organic matter and total nitrogen in the soil. Clay, available phosphorus, and exchangeable K+ were all higher in cultivated land while exchangeable Mg2+ was highest in grazing land. Sand, clay, soil organic matter, cation exchange capacity, exchangeable Ca2+, and Mg2+ all showed a greater mean difference in cultivated land compared to grazing land and forestland
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References
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