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Abstract

Soil organic carbon is one of the key determinants of soil quality and productivity, contributing to food production and mitigation ofclimate change. Vegetation, particularly trees, is essential in maintaining and enhancing soil organic carbon. However, there is alack of knowledge on the ability of trees to enhance soil organic carbon in the presence of high-intensity livestock grazing. Here,we conducted a study in Morogoro Rural District, Tanzania, where we established a 10 × 10 km study site covering part of theKitulangalo forest reserve and surrounding areas. We identified four main land uses and land cover types: forest reserve, openaccess forest, cropland under fallow, and cropland under cultivation. We assessed soil organic carbon stocks, livestock grazingintensity, and tree basal area in 149 plots. We also tested the effect of total grazing exclusion in two 12-years-old fenced plotslocated within the forest reserve. Topsoil organic carbon stocks were higher in land use classes with higher tree cover; At lowgrazing intensity, the forest reserve had the highest mean topsoil organic carbon (51 ± 8 tones ha−1) and that this decreased withdecreasing tree cover across land uses, with croplands under cultivation having the lowest value (32 ± 12 tones ha−1). We foundthat soil organic carbon declined with increased grazing intensity, but this decrease was higher in croplands, with a 64% decreaseto 12 ± 8 tones ha−1 when comparing the lowest and highest grazing intensities. In contrast, the decrease in forested lands was18% to 42 ± 17 tones ha−1. We conclude that increasing livestock grazing intensity has a negative impact on soil organic carbon,particularly in land uses with a low tree cover, and that more trees in the landscape have the potential to counteract the adverseeffects of livestock grazing.

Keywords

Soil organic carbon; livestock grazing intensity; land use; land cover; miombo landscape

Published in

CABI Agriculture and Bioscience
2025, volume: 6, number: 1, article number: 0039

SLU Authors

UKÄ Subject classification

Agricultural Science
Forest Science

Publication identifier

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1079/ab.2025.0039

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/142063