Effectiveness of biological characteristics of rangeland soil in the face of land use change to dryland (Case study: Rangelands in Kermanshah)

Changing the use of rangeland to agriculture is a significant process in land and natural resource management.This practice has gained increased attention in recent years due to the growing global demand for food and agricultural products.While this land-use change can potentially address food security concerns, it also poses environmental challenges and consequences.These include damage to natural ecosystems, soil degradation, biodiversity loss, and climate change.Therefore, a thorough understanding of both the benefits and drawbacks of this transition is crucial to ensure sustainable growth and the conservation of natural resources.The present study aimed to investigate the impact of land-use change from rangeland to dryland agriculture on the biological characteristics of rangeland soil in a specific region of Kermanshah. 2-MethodologyIn this study, several including as basic soil respiration, stimulated respiration, microbial biomass carbon, microbial biomass nitrogen, carbon to nitrogen ratio of microbial biomass, microbial ratio, microbial metabolic coefficient and carbon availability index were measured.After the sampling and laboratory examinations, oneway analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the soil characteristics in two land use of rangeland and rainfed agricultural land in the three areas of Qala, Cheshme Qadir and Mahmoud Abad region.Moreover, Duncan's test was employed in SPSS software to compare the mean of biological parameters. 3-ResultsThe results showed that the highest amount of basic soil respiration was recorded in the dry agricultural use of Qala area with the amount of 78.3 mg/kg of dry soil and the lowest amount was recorded in the rangeland use of Cheshme Qadir area.The amount of stimulated respiration was measured in rangeland land use in two areas of Cheshme Qadir and Qala, 27.98 and 95.97, respectively, and in dryland land use, 57.92 and 86.47 mg/kg of dry soil were measured.Meanwhile, in Mahmoud Abad area, the stimulated respiration of soil in the dryland agricultural use was more than that of the rangeland land, and its amount was measured at 87.63 mg/kg dry soil in the dry land land use and 81.97 mg/kg in the rangeland land use.The carbon values of microbial biomass were measured in three areas of Qala, Cheshme Qadir and Mahmood Abad in rangeland land, respectively 189, 197 and 181, and in agricultural land, 191, 155 and 181 mg of carbon per kilogram of soil, respectively.The highest amount of microbial biomass nitrogen among rangeland uses among the three studied areas was measured in Cheshme Qadir rangeland with a value of 13.60 mg per kilogram of dry matter.The lowest amount was also obtained in the agricultural use of Mahmoud Abad region with the amount of 5.77 mg per kilogram of dry bark.Nitrogen values of microbial biomass to total nitrogen were measured in the three areas of Qala, Cheshme Qadir and Mahmoodabad, respectively, 28.09, 26.92, and 36.25 in rangeland land use, and also in agricultural land use, 22.70, 24.49, respectively.and it was 33.31 and the ratio of carbon to nitrogen of microbial biomass was almost