Assessment of soil quality indicators under different agricultural land uses and topographic aspects in Central Vietnam

Soil quality assessment is valuable for agricultural production. In this research, 155 soil samples at two soil depths were collected from four land use types in an agricultural area of the A Luoi district in the Central Vietnam. Differences of soil organic carbon, total nitrogen in soil and soil pH under different land use types and topographic aspects were compared. Soil organic carbon contents in arable land and plantation forest are higher than those in natural forest and grassland (p < 0.05). Conversely, the total nitrogen in natural forest was significantly lesser in comparison to other land use types. Meanwhile there were no significant differences of the total nitrogen content (p < 0.05) among arable land, plantation forest, and grassland. The soil of grassland, natural and plantation forests land use types were more significantly acidic than those of the soils of the arable land use type. Soil organic carbon and total nitrogen showed a decreasing trend while soil depth increased in all land use types. The soil pH in plantation forest and arable land use types showed no significant change in relation to soil depth. Significant differences were not found in topographic aspects and soil organic carbon content; however, the different changing trends of soil organic carbon content between land use types and aspects were found. The impact of slope, elevation, farming system or soil texture accounted for the differences in these soil indicators under different land use types in the A Luoi district.