Academic Editor: Huadong Zang Received: 8 January 2025 Revised: 6 March 2025 Accepted: 10 March 2025 Published: 12 March 2025 Citation: Sulaeman, Y.; Maftuáh, E.; Sukarman, S.; Neswati, R.; Nurdin, N.; Basuki, T.; Suriadi, A.; Vasenev, I. Influence of Land-Use Type on Black Soil Features in Indonesia Based on Soil Survey Data. Land 2025, 14, 599. https://doi.org/10.3390/ land14030599 Copyright: © 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/). Article Influence of Land-Use Type on Black Soil Features in Indonesia Based on Soil Survey Data Yiyi Sulaeman 1, * , Eni Maftuáh 1 , Sukarman Sukarman 1 , Risma Neswati 2 , Nurdin Nurdin 3 , Tony Basuki 1 , Ahmad Suriadi 1 and Ivan Vasenev 4 1 Research Organization for Agriculture and Food, National Research and Innovation Agency, Jalan Jakarta-Bogor KM 46, Cibinong, Bogor 16915, West Java, Indonesia; enim002@brin.go.id (E.M.); sukarman.3@brin.go.id (S.S.); tony.basuki@brin.go.id (T.B.); ahmad.suriadi@brin.go.id (A.S.) 2 Department of Soil Science, Hasanuddin University, Jalan Perintis Kemerdekaan KM 10, Makassar 90245, South Sulawesi, Indonesia; rismaneswati@agri.unhas.ac.id 3 Department of Agrotechnology, State University of Gorontalo, Jalan Prof. Dr. Ing. B.J. Habibie, Gorontalo 96554, Gorontalo, Indonesia; nurdin@ung.ac.id 4 Department of Ecology, Russian Timiryazev State Agrarian University, Timiryazevskaya Ulitsa, 49, Moscow 127550, Russia; vasenev@rgau-msha.ru * Correspondence: yiyi.sulaeman@brin.go.id Abstract: Black soils refer to soils with black, thick upper layers containing 0.6% or more soil organic carbon in the tropical region. This high organic carbon content makes these soils essential for climate change control and food production. In Indonesia, black soils are found under forests, shrublands, and grasslands in tropical monsoon and savannah climates. Land clearing for agricultural uses will change black soil properties; however, knowledge of change (level, direction, and sensitivity) is limited. Meanwhile, soil surveying records land-use types and collects soil samples, resulting in voluminous legacy soil data. This study aimed to compare the mean difference in soil properties between two land- cover/use types. We used 142 black soil datasets containing legacy data on particle size distribution (sand, silt, clay), pH, soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), available P 2 O 5 (AP), and exchangeable cations (Ca, Mg, K, Na). We calculated the Hedges’s g-index for effect size assessment and performed a Welch’s t-test for significant differences. The results show that, compared to the forest, the agricultural dryland and monoculture home gardens have a large effect size and trigger changes in many soil properties. In contrast, mixed home gardens and paddy fields have a small effect size. In decreasing order, the black soil properties sensitive to change are TN > SOC = exchangeable K > exchangeable Mg = available phosphorus = pH = exchangeable Na > sand = silt = clay > exchangeable Ca. The results suggest that a combination of home gardens and paddy fields better supports food security and mitigates climate change in black soils. In addition, the legacy soil data can be used to monitor soil property changes. Keywords: black soil; climate change; effect size; land use; soil properties 1. Introduction Black soils refer to mineral soils having thick, black upper layers (>25 cm) containing 0.6% or more soil organic carbon in tropical regions [1]. These soils store high organic carbon, being essential for climate change control and food production. Due to inherently fertile and productive soils, the black soil area has become a food basket for many coun- tries [2], such as China, Russia, and Ukraine, and the soils are intensively and extensively Land 2025, 14, 599 https://doi.org/10.3390/land14030599