摘要：Land-use change is a universal problem that caused soil degradation and is the major challenge for sustainability in mountainous areas like Karakoram ranges. Understanding the effect of land-use change on soil organic carbon (SOC), soil quality and its function is vital for livelihood, sustainable natural resource management to the mountain communities. This study aims to evaluate the impact of difYerent land use on soil organic carbon stock (SOCS) and selected soil quality parameters in a mountainous landscape of Karakoram region, Gilgit, Pakistan. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that except soil moisture all investigated soil properties like pH. electric conductivity (EC), bulk density (BD)? SOC, SOCS and temperature was statistically significant. Likewise, the forest had significantly higher values of SOC stock (70.5Mg/h) as compared to agriculture (55Mg/h) and pasture (52Mg/h). Agriculture land had lower organic carbon stocks than forest indicating that deforestation or conversion of forest land to agricultural uses is contributing to losses of up to 15 Mg ha-1 SOCS. Nitrate Nitrogen (N03-N) and Available Phosphorus (Av.P) were found to be higher at pasture than agriculture and lowest at the forest. While potassium was higher at agriculture than forest and lowest at pasture. Mean pH in agriculture land was acidic while in the pasture it was weakly acidic and almost neutral (6.7) at the forest. Bulk density was significantly higher at agriculture (1.18g/cm3) than pasture (0.83 g/'cm3) and lowest at the forest (0.66 g/cm3). SOC, SOCS, pH,and EC were significantly higher (p<0.05) at the top layer (0-20cm) and decrease with increasing depth while Bulk density was increased with increasing the depth of the soil. The texture of the soil was silt loam at forest and agriculture while silt in the pasture. Continuous monitoring of soil properties is essential to understand the impact of land-use change, inten-sivc cropping on SOC stock and soil quality for sustainable management of mountain soil for sustainable agricultural production.
