ABSTRACT
This experiment was conducted to find out the micronutrient status of soil under four different land uses in Ugbowo Campus of University of Benin, Benin city. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replicates. Twelve sites were carefully selected; three each from four land uses (Arable, lawn, forest and sport). Soils were collected at two depths (0-15 and 15-30cm depths) from each of the twelve sites, using soil auger. Soil samples were taken to the laboratory, where standard procedures were used to determine; pH, TOC, Zn, Mn, Cu, Fe, Cl, sand, silt and clay. Data obtained was subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA), and means were separated using Duncan’s new Multiple Range Test, at 5% level ofsignificance. Results shows that the top soil (0-15 cm depth) belong to the textural class; Sand, while the 15-30 cm depth was loamy sand. Sand content decreased with depth while clay content increased with depth. The TOC content of the top soil range from 11.77 g/kg in the sport land to 26.37 g/kg in the forest. The TOC decreased with depth across the four land uses. In the 0-15 cm depth, lawn had the highest significant (p ˂ 0.05) micronutrient contents. It recorded mean values of 31.27 mg/kg, 20.70 mg/kg, 34.37 mg/kg, 67.43 mg/kg and 32.73 mg/kg for Zn, Mn, Cu, Fe and Cl respectively. Similarly, the Zn, Mn, Cu recorded their peak values(25.43 mg/kg, 17.40 mg/kg, 26.07 mg/kg), in the 15-30 cm depth in the lawn, while forest had the highest peak values of Fe (58.57 mg/kg) and Cl ( 20.87 mg/kg).
