3.2 Effect of land use on soil carbon stock
Land uses change impacts the SCS in all the regions of the country. In this study, SCS was found significantly affected due to conversion of FL into other land uses (BL/CL/HL/PL) and non-significantly affected with respect to GL. The percent reduction of SCS in BL, CL, GL, HL and PL was 34.0, 41.2, 1.47, 33.5, and 47.9, respectively as compared with FL (Figure 4). The decrease in SCS for GL was found towards lower direction as compared to other land uses (BL/CL/HL/PL) over the GL could be due to minimum human interference in the region whereas the maximum interference of human exaggerated losses in SCS in CL and PL. The long-term no vegetation in BL has affected adversely towards SCS.
Depth-wise study of SCS for land use changes accorded the findings of overall result of SCS under most conditions. In soil depth 0-15 cm, SCS decreased significantly in BL (-31.9%), CL (-38.3%), HL (-38.0%) and PL (-30.2%) over the FL but found non-significant changed for GL (5.7%) in comparison to FL (Figure 4). Even though SCS for GL was non-significantly affected as when compared with FL but the positive effects could be due to long-term vegetation prevalent in some of the regions of GL over the newly established forest. In soil depth 15-30 cm, SCS decreased significantly in BL (-41.4%), CL (-44.6%), HL (-31.2%) and PL (-67.1%)over the FL but non-significant decreased for GL (-17.3%) as compared to FL whereas in soil depth 30-45 cm, SOC decreased significantly in BL (-35.9%), CL (-47.6%), GL (-14.2%) and PL (-67.2%) over the FL and non-significant increased for HL (-10.3%) in comparison to FL (Figure 4).