Impacts of campaign-based community watershed management on selected soil quality indicators

In the highlands of Ethiopia, integrated community watershed management has drawn a lot of interest as a solution to low production and soil degradation. However, the documentation of its role in managing soil fertility and health under diverse landscape perspectives remains inadequate. The main objective of this study was to link the effects of landscape positions and soil management practices (conservation agriculture (CA) and non-CA) on selected soil properties. Disturbed and undisturbed soil samples were collected at a depth of 0–20 cm from 192 locations (16 different watersheds) to analyze texture, bulk density (ρd), pH, soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), and available phosphorus (Av.P). The study used analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson correlation, and principal component analysis to examine the relationship between factors, identify patterns, and understand data variability. The findings indicated that the landscape position significantly affects the values of ρd, sand and clay, SOC, Av.P, and TN at p < 0.05. The sand, clay, ρd, SOC, Av.P, and TN showed statistically significant variations between CA and non-CA. The interaction effects of landscape positions and watershed management status (well and poor) were highly significant for the selected soil properties except for the silt and pH. The results also demonstrated a substantial correlation between the observed soil properties. Meanwhile, the principal components 1–3 collectively described 64.45% of the total variability. Therefore, it is possible to infer that successful watershed management intervention improves topsoil properties, which urges the maintenance and development of soil and water conservation, CA, and vermicomposting practices.