Effects of Converting Forest to Tea Garden on Soil Fertility in Guilan Province

آب و خاک

Article 4, Volume 26, Issue 4, September 2012, Pages 826-831   

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: 10.22067/jsw.v0i0.15286

Authors

B. Shiranpour^* ; A. Bahrami; M. Shabanpour

Abstract

Due to high organic matter and strong structure, the forest soils in Guilan province are potentially productive. This study was conducted to show the effects of land use change on soil fertility in four different sites in Guilan province where the location of tea garden and forest have the same physiography and parent material. At any site three soil samples with randomly method were collected from a depth of 20cm from the soil surface and total Nitrogen, available Phosphorous and Potassium, exchangeable form of Calcium and Magnesium contents and C/N ratio were measured. The results showed that after 10 – 40 years of the land use change (forest to tea gardens) the amounts of these elements had been significantly reduced (P>0.01). Also the effect of sites on this reduction had been significant,this means that land use change in different sites had various effect on characteristics that were studied. In contrast, C/N ratio didn’t show significant difference.

Keywords

: Land Use; Soil; fertility; Forest; Tea