Assessment of soil property alteration caused by unsustainable reclamation activities

ABSTRACT Unsustainable reclamation activities (URAs) have been increasingly conducted to respond to the rising global food demand, leading to severe repercussions on land environments. A total of 120 soil samples representing 12 sites were randomly selected in the three distinct land types (PMFs, PALs, and BHLs) to a depth of 60 cm. The impacts of URAs on soil properties and functions (SPFs) across the Nghe An mountainous province, Vietnam were assessed using the SPSS software (version 26.0) through a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The findings indicated the distinct differences in soil particle size (SPS) among different land types (DLTs). Pristine and mixed forests (PMFs) exhibited the lowest sand ratios, ranging from 31.4 to 35.2%, while bare hills and lands (BHLs) recorded the highest sand ratios, ranging from 49.7 to 55.1%. High bulk density (BD) was observed in BHLs (1.36 ± 0.07 kg dm-3) and PMFs (0.89 ± 0.02 to 1.13 ± 0.03 kg dm-3) while perennial and annual lands (PALs) varied from 1.17 ± 0.04 to 1.25 ± 0.08 kg dm-3. PMFs showed low values for total soil porosity (TSP), and soil water content (SWC) with respective ranges of 32.97-36.18% and 4.72-6.15% while PALs and BHLs exhibited high values for TSP (39.25-43.19%; 43.97-49.62%), and SWC (7.39-10.07%; 9.98-12.74%). Cation exchange capacity (CEC), Ca2+, K+, and Mg2+ were recorded higher in PALs compared to PMFs and PALs while total organic contents (TOCs) detected little variation among DLTs. Overall, the URAs enhanced the adverse effects on the SPFs across the study area.