Soil Properties Variation Valued in Relation to Land Use and Management Practices in Vietnam

Background: Land use and management practices (LUMPs) have been accelerated globally to serve the increasing socio-economic requirements in recent decades. Methods: This study focuses to assess the impacts of the LUMPs on the properties and composition of soil in the Lam River Basin (LRB), Vietnam based on analysis of ninety-six soil samples collected in the soil profiles (0₆0 cm). Result: The results indicated that the sand and clay ratios (34. 0~35. 7% and 16. 2~19. 9%) and bulk density (BD) (1. 07±0. 05~1. 34 ± 0. 06 Mg m-3) in the natural forest lands (NFLs) were lower and higher perturbed than the plantation forest lands (PFLs) (31. 1~ 51. 5%, 5. 7~38. 2% and 0. 86 ± 0. 03~1. 12±0. 05 Mg m-3) in the 0-20 cm topsoil layer. The soil texture is mainly sandy clay to clay loam and the BD tends slightly increase in the topsoil layer, then decrease in the 20-60 cm subsoil layer. There is no difference in soil pH between collected soil samples (CSSs) and tends to increase with increasing the subsoil layer. The base cations (BCs) (Ca2+, K+, Mg2+: 0. 01~0. 29, 0. 06~0. 11 and 0. 06~0. 07 Cmolc kg-1) and total organic contents (TOCs) (total carbon (TC), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP): 24. 11; 2. 80 and 0. 19 g kg-1) of the NFLs are higher than those of the CSSs (TC, TN, TP: 14. 37~23. 91, 1. 62~2. 28 and 0. 08~0. 17 g kg-1) in the topsoil layer while these values were not different in the topsoil layer.