Abstract
Global warming and climate change have drawn special attention to soil and its potential for stable carbon sequestration. Soils are the largest stores of carbon in terrestrial carbon cycle and contain about three times more carbon than vegetation cover and two times more than that of atmosphere. Studying the effects of grazing on soil carbon storage is important because of the major role soil organic carbon has in production. Grazing is potent for changing the carbon storage of rangeland ecosystems. In this research, the effect of different grazing intensities on carbon sequestration and nitrogen stabilization in pastures cultivated with Atriplex canescens in Shahriar was studied. Soil and plant samplings were done in low, moderate and high grazing intensity areas as well as exclosure, using randomized – systematic method. Soil samples were taken from 0-10, 10-30 and 30-100 Cm depths of 20 soil profiles. In each soil sample, stone percent, bulk density, organic carbon and nitrogen were calculated. Data analysis was done using one – way ANOVA and Duncan test in SPSS 17 software. Results showed that all three grazing intensities have caused significant reduction in carbon and nitrogen of soil.
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