Effects of Soil and Water Conservation Structures on Selected Soil Physicochemical Properties: The Case of Ejersa Lafo District, Central Highlands of Ethiopia

Table 1

Soil physical properties (sand, silt clay, and BD fractions) in relation to the type of conservation practices and slope gradient (mean ± SE) of top soil (0–20 cm) depth.

Land use type	Variables
	Sand	Silt	Clay	SMC	BD
Conserved land	29.65 ± 3.44	18.54 ± 0.88	51.79 ± 3.36	10.64 ± 1.73	1.23
Nonconserved land	31.76 ± 4.2	19.88 ± 1.74	47.6 ± 1.36	5.529 ± 1.435	1.37
Overall mean	30.0 ± 3.66	18.2 ± 1.67	51.8 ± 3.26	8.096 ± 3.14	1.3
LSD (0.05)	0.641	0.642	0.175	0.22
SEM	1.49	0.685	1.326	1.284
Slope gradient
Upper (15–30%)	34.27 ± 1.889	18.2 ± 1.621	47.525 ± 1.51	5.25 ± 0.884
Middle (8–15%)	31.125 ± 2.09	19.5 ± 2.415	49.875 ± 2.26	5.679 ± 0.862
Lower (3–8%)	26.725 ± 1.56	19.95 ± 1.865	51.725 ± 4.38	6.047 ± 0.732
LSD (0.05)	0.001	0.467	0.189	0.371
SEM	1.053	0.567	0.932	0.871

Note: SMC = soil moisture content; BD = bulky density.