Soil organic carbon and its' stock potential in different land-use types along slope position in Coka watershed, Southern Ethiopia

Understanding organic carbon accumulations in soils is crucially essential concerning carbon sequestration, fighting climate change, increasing land productivity, improving soil properties, providing energy to the microbial community, enhancing ecological restoration, and reversing global environmental damage. This study was aimed at assessing the effects of land-use-cover change (LULC) on soil organic carbon (SOC), its' stock potential, and bulk-density (BD) along slope position in the Coka watershed. Replicated soil samples had been collected and composited from 30 cm depth topsoil of five major land use types and three slope positions. This result showed that significantly (P < 0.001) lowest and highest mean of soil organic carbon stock (SOCS) was observed under bare lands (37.835 Mg ha(−1)) and bushlands (144.582 Mg ha(−1)), respectively which was the same for SOC concentration. Barelands lose 3.82 times (3.82x) higher SOCS than bushland and 2.68x more SOCS than forestland. Both SOC-stock and SOC showed significant (P < 0.001) differences among slope positions, which were the highest in lower-slope followed by middle-slope, which had 1.8 and 2.6x higher than in middle-slope and upper-slope positions, respectively. Thus, the multivariate-test result divulges that LULC along slope positions has a strongly significant (P < 0.05) main and interaction effect on SOCS in the area. Therefore, the potential contribution of bushland and forestland uses should be improved for SOC sequestration, soil productivity improvement, and environmental protection.