Soils at flat areas in Taiwan are usually for rural usage. Different landuse and unsuitable management result in decrease of soil quality. Pingtung is an important agricultural area in Taiwan, where exhibited diverse landuse for agriculture. This study collected 165 soil samples under different landuse with the same soil type in the study terrace to evaluate the influences of different landuse on soil organic matter (SOM) and soil aggregate stability (AS). The major 7 landuse including broadleaf forest, bamboo, grass, pineapple, papaya, banana, and betel nut trees were found at the terrace. The results revealed that SOM obviously reduced landuse was converted from forest into papaya, banana and betel nut planting; the organic carbon storage decreased 4.35 Mg ha^(-1), 10.8 Mg ha^(-1) and 13.4 Mg ha^(-1), respectively. The AS was positively related to SOM (r = 0.48, p < 0.01), amorphous Fe (Feo) (r = 0.47, p < 0.01) and Al (Alo) (r = 0.34, p < 0.05), fulvic acids (FAs) (r = 0.42, p < 0.05) and humic acids (HAs) (r = 0.32, p < 0.05). Our results indicated that inorganic components such as amorphous Fe and Al were also important cementing materials between soil aggregates.
Soils at flat areas in Taiwan are usually for rural usage. Different landuse and unsuitable management result in decrease of soil quality. Pingtung is an important agricultural area in Taiwan, where exhibited diverse landuse for agriculture. This study collected 165 soil samples under different landuse with the same soil type in the study terrace to evaluate the influences of different landuse on soil organic matter (SOM) and soil aggregate stability (AS). The major 7 landuse including broadleaf forest, bamboo, grass, pineapple, papaya, banana, and betel nut trees were found at the terrace. The results revealed that SOM obviously reduced landuse was converted from forest into papaya, banana and betel nut planting; the organic carbon storage decreased 4.35 Mg ha^(-1), 10.8 Mg ha^(-1) and 13.4 Mg ha^(-1), respectively. The AS was positively related to SOM (r = 0.48, p < 0.01), amorphous Fe (Feo) (r = 0.47, p < 0.01) and Al (Alo) (r = 0.34, p < 0.05), fulvic acids (FAs) (r = 0.42, p < 0.05) and humic acids (HAs) (r = 0.32, p < 0.05). Our results indicated that inorganic components such as amorphous Fe and Al were also important cementing materials between soil aggregates.