100-years livestock transit impact on soil properties in rangeland under continuous livestock movement (Case Study of Sarfaryab of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad Province Rangelands)

Soil is one of the most important components of pasture ecosystems, which causes the production and growth of various plants on pastures. The excessive pressure of livestock on the pastures to resolve the necessary and unnecessary agricultural, biological and economic needs of humans has caused the destruction of the soil and vegetation in the pastures.

Purpose of the research: 

Considering the importance of studying the effects of livestock presence in natural ecosystems, the present study investigates the effect of continuous livestock traffic in natural ecosystems on some soil factors in Sarfaryab. For this purpose, two sites of continuous livestock traffic and a site without livestock traffic were selected.

In each of the studied sites, a transect with a length of 1000 meters was installed and at a distance of one hundred meters, a plot of 1 * 1 square meter was systematically randomly placed and soil samples were taken from each corner and center of the plot to a depth of 10 cm. They were mixed together and 20 soil samples were taken and studied for soil texture factors, organic matter, electrical conductivity, potassium percentage, phosphorus, nitrogen and soil acidity. Data were analyzed by SPSS software version 22 using independent t-test.

Geographical area of research: 

Sarfaryab is located 28 km northeast of Charam in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad provinces.

The results of soil analysis showed; All the studied factors except soil acidity in the two studied sites have a significant difference at the level of 1% and livestock traffic causes an increase in some factors such as sand percentage and soil electrical conductivity and a decrease in some factors such as phosphorus, potassium, percentage Nitrogen, clay percentage and soil silt percentage.

Irregular livestock grazing reduces some soil factors such as potassium, phosphorus, nitrogen, clay and silt, as well as increasing the electrical conductivity, acidity and sand of the soil.