Investigation of Land Use Types on Physical and Chemical Properties of Soil in a Basement Terrain

We assessed the effect of different land use types on the physical and chemical properties of soil. We analysed three cases. Nine soil samples were taken at different depths (0–10, 10–20 and 20–30 cm) from three locations, namely, sawmill, dumpsite and market. Analyses were carried out to determine the influences on the physical and chemical properties of the soil. All the land types had considerably high sand contents, with minor silt and clay. Available phosphorus and the exchangeable bases were significantly (p ≤ 0.05) affected by land use and soil depth. Moisture content (p ≤ 0.05) was significantly affected by land use, while bulk density (p ≤ 0.01) was significantly affected by soil depth. Soil organic matter and carbon were also generally low in all three locations. Consequently, ameliorative land management practices have to be adopted to prevent nutrient loss and land degradation.