Impact of Land use change on soil organic carbon content in dry tropics

Abstract

Land use change leading to loss of soil carbon content is of major global concern. In the present study, the effect of land use change involving forest, degraded forest, Jatropha plantation and agroecosystem in dry tropics was analyzed on the potential of soil carbon sequestration in terms of the concentration of soil organic carbon. Soil organic carbon concentration was found to be highest in forest (0.84%) followed in decreasing order by Jatropha plantation (0.78%), degraded forest (0.36%) and lowest in agroecosystem (0.21%). This study reflected that plantation of Jatropha for about 10 years on degraded soil have large potential of carbon sequestration compared to agroecosystem.