Land use change and soil organic carbon dynamics: A case study with institutional establishment

The advancement of human civilizations exacerbated land use changes for settlements, agriculture, and development projects, etc. and affected the delivery of multiple ecosystem services. In the present study, land use and land cover changes (native forests) resulting from physical structures (educational institutes) have been studied for their role in soil organic carbon dynamics. In the study area (1) soil organic carbon (SOC) content for the transitional land uses was in the order of natural forest (17.27 g kg(-1)) > recreational forest (12.65 g kg(-1)) > ecoforest (11.14 g kg(-1))> degraded forest (9.92 g kg(-1)), and had significant reciprocal relation with the increasing vertical soil profile. (2) Pearson's correlation revealed a significant positive relation between SOC and soil moisture (r = 0.599), and vertical soil profiles of each land use had discrete cluster arrangement by SOC composition. The establishment of physical structures severely reduced SOC content due to the degradation of native vegetation; however, with intentional management of the ecoforest and recreational forest, a part of the green campus initiative has partially restored the soil health. The current practice of delineating of forest management practices provided partial solutions for the institutional forest and soil health management.