Skip to main content
Articles | Sustainable Environmental Insight | Volume 3 - Issue 1 - 2026 | 89−97 | https://doi.org/10.53623/sein.v3i1.994
© 2026 by the author(s), and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License

Evaluation of Soil Organic Carbon in Gana, Saniko and Agbarha-Otor in Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State, Nigeria

Author(s): Otache Monday Abel 1 , Afitijagun Iyabo Priscilla 2 ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0009-1704-0694 , Godwin Kparobo Agbajor 3 ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8606-5590
Author(s) information:
1 Department of Chemical Sciences, Edwin Clark University, Kiagbodo, Delta State, Nigeria
2 Department of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Michael and Cecilia Ibru University, Delta State, Nigeria
3 Department of Physics, Delta state University, Abraka, Delta State, Nigeria

Corresponding author

Sustainable Environmental Insight

Volume 3 - Issue 1 - 2026

 About the journal
Submit your article

The restoration of mangroves was essential for implementing climate change mitigation strategies. Deforestation, forest degradation, and global warming increased the amount of greenhouse gases released from the soil, which contributed to climate change. The impact of forest restoration and regenerative farming techniques was thus hindered by the absence of adequate data on Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) in the Niger Delta region, which was vulnerable to soil degradation as a result of crude oil activities. Therefore, the quantification of SOC in Gana, Saniko, and Agbarha-Otor in Ughelli North of Delta State, Nigeria, was carried out to address this challenge. The findings indicated that Agbarha-Otor had the highest mean value of 1.1232 g/cm³, while Gana had the lowest mean soil bulk density (0.7764 g/cm³). A similar pattern was observed for the organic matter content, with Agbarha-Otor recording the highest mean value of 4.14% and Gana having the lowest mean soil organic matter content (2.03%). In Gana, Saniko, and Agbarha-Otor, the estimated levels of SOC ranged from 31.33 to 136.81 t C/ha. The results of this study would help policymakers develop measures that were suitable for the conservation of soil carbon.

Read Full-Text
Previous article
Next article

Ali, A.; Ashraf, M.I.; Gulzar, S.; Muhammad, A.; Bilal, A. (2020). Estimation of soil carbon pools in the forests of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan. Journal of Forestry Research, 31, 2313–2321. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11676-019-01059-9.

Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). (2017). Soil organic carbon: the hidden potential. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy.

Assefa, G.; Mengiistu, T.; Getu, Z.; Zewdiie, S. (2013). Training Manual on Forest Carbon Pools and Carbon Stock Assessment in the Context of SFM and REDD+. College of Forestry and Natural Resources, Hawassa University, Wondo Genet, Ethiopia.

Subedi, B.; Pandey, S.; Pandey, A.; Rana, E.; Bhattarai, S.; Banskota, T. (2010). Forest carbon stock measurement: guidelines for measuring carbon stocks in community-managed forests. International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Kathmandu, Nepal.

Hartley, J.; Marchant, J. (1995). Methods of determining the moisture content of wood, Technical Paper No. 41. Research Division, State Forests of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

Agus, F.; Hairiah, K.; Mulyani, A. (2011). Measuring carbon stock in peat soils: practical guidelines. World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), Southeast Asia Regional Program, Indonesian Centre for Agricultural Land Resources Research and Development, Bogor, Indonesia.

Rehman, M.; Holmes, A.; Deurer, M. (2011). Comparison of three methods to estimate organic carbon in allophanic soils in New Zealand. Horticulture Innovation Centre, Tauranga, New Zealand.

Schumacher, B. (2002). Methods for the determination of total organic carbon (TOC) in soils and sediments. United States Environmental Protection Agency, Environmental Sciences Division, National Exposure Research Laboratory, Las Vegas, USA.

Nelson, D.W.; Sommers, L.E. (1996). Total carbon, organic carbon, and organic matter. In Methods of soil analysis, part III, chemical methods; Sparks, D.L. Ed.; American Society of Agronomy Inc., Madison, USA, 961–1010.

IPCC. (2003). Good Practice Guidance for Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), National Greenhouse Gas Inventories Programme, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), Hayama, Japan.

Liu, X.; Zhou, Y.; Zhang, S.; Li, S.; Wang, G. (2016). Soil organic carbon storage and bulk density dynamics under different land-use types and soil depths. Forest Ecology and Management, 372, 70–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2016.03.041.

Panagos, P.; De Rosa, D.; Liakos, L.; Labouyrie, M.; Borrelli, P.; Ballabio, C. (2024). Soil bulk density assessment in Europe. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 364, 108907.

Siddiqui, M.H.; Mohammad, F.; Khan, M.N.; Al-Whaibi, M.H. (2014). Role of soil organic matter in maintaining soil fertility and productivity. Journal of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, 14(2), 355–369.

Khattak, R.A.; Hussain, Z. (2007). Evaluation of soil fertility status and organic matter content of agricultural soils under different land-use systems. Sarhad Journal of Agriculture, 23(2), 329–334.

Maren, I.E.; Karki, S.; Prajapati, C.; Yadav, R.K.; Shrestha, B.B. (2015). Facing north or south: Does slope aspect impact soil properties and soil organic carbon stocks in a Himalayan forest? Journal of Mountain Science, 12(4), 1029–1043. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11629-014-3151-5.

Jung, J.; Park, Y.L.; Kim, Y.J.; Ok, Y.; Bae, J.; Yoo, G. (2025). A field-measured dataset for soil organic carbon stock in South Korean grasslands. Scientific Data, 12, 691.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO); ITPS; ISRIC; ISSCAS; JRC. (2020). Global Soil Organic Carbon Map (GSOCmap) Version 1.5 – Technical Report. FAO, Rome, Italy.

Read Full-Text
About this article

SUBMITTED: 12 January 2026
ACCEPTED: 23 February 2026
PUBLISHED: 3 March 2026
SUBMITTED to ACCEPTED: 42 days
DOI: https://doi.org/10.53623/sein.v3i1.994

Cite this article
Abel, O. M. ., Priscilla, A. I. ., & Agbajor, G. K. . (2026). Evaluation of Soil Organic Carbon in Gana, Saniko and Agbarha-Otor in Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State, Nigeria. Sustainable Environmental Insight, 3(1), 89−97. https://doi.org/10.53623/sein.v3i1.994
Keywords
Deforestation soil organic carbon mangrove bulk density climate change mitigation soil degradation
Citations
0
Share this article