Present research was undertaken at University of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Shivamogga during the period of 2014 to 2016 to study the soil properties such as physical, chemical and biological properties in red soils as influenced by different land use systems in Jambadahalla subwatershed, Chikkamagaluru district. Soil samples were collected from 0-15, 15–30 and 30–45 cm soil depths of six land uses viz., natural forest, eucalyptus, arecanut, coconut, potato and maize with four replications in each land use system. Soils were examined for physical properties like bulk density, clay percent, aggregate percent and mean weight diameter, chemical properties like pH, electrical conductivity (EC), organic carbon (OC), available nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), carbon pools like total carbon (TC), inorganic carbon (IC), E4/E6 ratio of humic acid and fulvic acid, microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and biological properties like total microbial activity (TMA) and dehydrogenase activity (DHA). Analysis results revealed that the lowest bulk density in the surface depth was recorded with natural forest system (0.90 Mg m-3) as compared to 1.32 Mg m-3 recorded highest with the maize land use system. Aggregate stability under different land uses was in the order of natural forest > eucalyptus > arecanut > potato > coconut > maize. The natural forest system showed higher WSA percentage of 77.5 as compared to maize system (60.67%) which is attributed to the higher organic matter in this soil. The highest organic carbon status was maintained by the eucalyptus system (17.2 g kg-1) compared to maize land use system (8.2 g kg-1) which recorded lowest organic carbon. In the surface depths highest organic carbon stock of 24.23 Mg ha-1 was recorded with eucalyptus which was on par with natural forest system (19.61 Mg ha-1). Maize being the widely spaced crop with intensive cultivation recorded the lowest (6.58 Mg ha-1) OCS. Significantly higher available P content were noticed in surface soil with natural forest (11.8 kg ha-1) followed by maize (11.0 kg ha-1) and arecanut (10.7 kg ha-1) system and lowest was in potato (6.6 kg ha-1) system. Available K content varied significantly among the land use systems recording highest in eucalyptus plantation (485 kg ha-1) and natural forest (406 kg ha-1) and lowest in potato (263 kg ha-1) land use system. Highest Total microbial activity was recorded in natural forest (37.9 mg CO2 - C kg-1 day-1), while the lowest activity was recorded in eucalyptus plantation (28.3 mg CO2 - C kg-1 day-1). Natural forest system recorded highest dehydrogenase activity of 34.18 µg TPF 24 h-1g-1 whereas, maize land use system recorded a lowest dehydrogenase activity of 16.45 µg TPF 24 h-1g-1. In this context, the results of the experiment revealed that among the various land use systems studied in red soils significantly higher levels of water stable aggregates (WSA), organic carbon stock (OCS), total microbial activity (TMA) and other properties were recorded in forest land use systems and lowest values were recorded in the intensively cultivated maize land use system.