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[Display omitted] • Establishing exclosures aids in vegetation restoration of degraded lands. • Exclosures of studied watersheds were limited in restoring degraded lands. • The efficacy of <11 & >11-year exclosures was different in restoring degraded lands. Land degradation is a severe environmental problem in the northern and northwestern Ethiopian highlands. As a response to increasing land degradation, rehabilitation of degraded grazing lands through exclosures (exclusion of farmers and domestic animals) has been undertaken. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of 11 and 8-year exclosures in improving degraded landscapes in the Karita-Wuha and Dengora watersheds. It was assumed that the conditions on communal grazing lands at the time of the investigation corresponded to those at the establishment of exclosures. Vegetation was inventoried, and soil samples were collected and analyzed in 14 and 21 sampling sites selected from exclosures and communal grazing lands in Dengora and Karita-Wuha watersheds, respectively. Sampling plots (20 × 20 m) were established for soil sampling. In the two land uses, 10x10 m and 5x5 m sub-plots were used to survey trees and bushes/shrubs, respectively. Richness, diversity, evenness, and aboveground biomass (AGB) were evaluated using measurements from the vegetation inventory. Organic carbon (OC), total nitrogen (TN), and available phosphorus (AP) and their stocks were used as soil nutrient indicators. The result showed that exclosures aided in restoring vegetation in both watersheds and soil nutrient parameters in the Dengora watershed compared with communal grazing lands. In the Karita-Wuha watershed, there was significantly higher OC, TN, and their stocks in communal grazing land than exclosures (t -test, p < 0.05). These results are generally attributed to the fact that communal grazing lands were significantly degraded before exclosure and have yet to recover. As a result, exclosures of Dengora and Karita-Wuha watersheds were limited in restoring degraded landscapes. There have been differences in the effectiveness of < 11- and > 11-year exclosures in restoring degraded landscapes in the literature. The effectiveness of various aged exclosures in restoring degraded landscapes is likely variable and dependent on local biophysical parameters and land use systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Land use types determined deep soil water redistribution. • Soil moisture in abandoned land was strongly affected by rainfall. • Decreased rainfall and soil drying reduced the growth of forage and shrubs. • Farmland in terraces and abandoned land on slopes were the ideal use types. The land-use change affects soil hydrological processes in semi-arid areas. Investigating the impact of precipitation change on soil moisture in different land use types (LUTs) is conducive to water resource management and ecological restoration. The volumetric water content (VWC) at 0–300 cm soil profile, meteorology data, and vegetation aboveground biomass were continuously observed from 2018 to 2022 in five terraced and three sloped LUTs. The results showed that soil moisture was affected by precipitation, vegetation, antecedent soil water, soil properties, and artificial management measures. There were significant differences in soil moisture among these land use types (P < 0.05), with the priority order of multi-year profile average VWC at 0–300 cm depth was farmland in the slope (FAS) (0.22 ± 0.01 cm3 cm−3) > bare land in the terrace (BAT) and farmland in the terrace (FAT) (0.19 ± 0.01 cm3 cm−3) > abandoned land in the slope (ABS) (0.18 ± 0.02 cm3 cm−3) > abandoned land in the terrace (ABT) (0.13 ± 0.02 cm3 cm−3) > forage land in the slope (FOS) (0.12 ± 0.02 cm3 cm−3) > forage land in the terrace (FOT) and shrubland in the terrace (SHT) (0.10 ± 0.01 cm3 cm−3). Except for BAT, soil water storage (SWS) in other LUTs decreased in 0–300 cm soil profile from 2018 to 2022. There were no or slight soil desiccations in FAS, BAT, ABS, and FAT, moderate soil desiccation in ABT, and serious soil desiccation in FOS, FOT, and SHT. The VWC, SWS, and soil desiccation index (SDI) of all LUTs were positively correlated with precipitation, especially at 0–100 cm depth. Precipitation threshold response to soil desiccation alleviation was determined to be 98–116 mm month−1. Moreover, aboveground biomass of FOT, ABT, and SHT exhibited a significant correlation with both soil moisture and precipitation (P < 0.05). Therefore, forage lands and shrublands have adverse effects on the mitigation of deep soil desiccation with decreasing rainfall. This study recommended farmland in the terrace and abandoned land in the slope for soil and water conservation and sustainable ecological restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]