The Effect of Forest Road Construction on Soil Organic Carbon Stock in Mountainous Catchment in Northern Iran

The main objective of this study was to investigate the effect of forest road construction on the Soil Organic Carbon Stock (SOCS) in Ziarat Catchment. Therefore, soil samples were collected from five land use types including road construction, cultivated area, channel bank, pasture and forest land and soil organic carbon concentration and bulk density were measured in the samples and SOCS were calculated. The results showed that the forest road construction reduce SOCS. SOC stock was greatest in the forest land use and the total SOC stock under different land uses varied in order forest, pasture, cultivate, channel bank and road construction with 143, 136, 128, 36 and 29 Mg ha?1, respectively (p < 0.001). Therefore, these results can be useful as a scientific basis for selecting the proper soil erosion control methods as a simple and low-cost approach to mitigate the SOC loss.