Soil Properties Variation Valued in Relation to Land Use and Management Practices in Vietnam

Abstract

Background: Land use and management practices (LUMPs) have been accelerated globally to serve the increasing socio-economic requirements in recent decades. Methods: This study focuses to assess the impacts of the LUMPs on the properties and composition of soil in the Lam River Basin (LRB), Vietnam based on analysis of ninety-six soil samples collected in the soil profiles (0_60 cm). Result: The results indicated that the sand and clay ratios (34.0~35.7% and 16.2~19.9%) and bulk density (BD) (1.07±0.05~1.34 ± 0.06 Mg m-3) in the natural forest lands (NFLs) were lower and higher perturbed than the plantation forest lands (PFLs) (31.1~ 51.5%, 5.7~38.2% and 0.86 ± 0.03~1.12±0.05 Mg m-3) in the 0-20 cm topsoil layer. The soil texture is mainly sandy clay to clay loam and the BD tends slightly increase in the topsoil layer, then decrease in the 20-60 cm subsoil layer. There is no difference in soil pH between collected soil samples (CSSs) and tends to increase with increasing the subsoil layer. The base cations (BCs) (Ca2+, K+, Mg2+: 0.01~0.29, 0.06~0.11 and 0.06~0.07 Cmolc kg-1) and total organic contents (TOCs) (total carbon (TC), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP): 24.11; 2.80 and 0.19 g kg-1) of the NFLs are higher than those of the CSSs (TC, TN, TP: 14.37~23.91, 1.62~2.28 and 0.08~0.17 g kg-1) in the topsoil layer while these values were not different in the topsoil layer.