Soil physico-chemical properties as impacted by different land use systems in district Ganderbal, Jammu and Kashmir: India

Abstract

Seven land use practices were investigated for their differences in soil physico- chemical properties. The land use types are native forest, horticulture, pastures, wastelands, agri-horticulture, agriculture irrigated and agriculture unirrigated. Structural parameters such as soil texture, bulk density, particle density, total porosity, moisture content, organic carbon and dispersion ratio were taken. In chemical parameters pH, EC, OC and CaCO3 were analyzed. The results showed that the pastures fallowed by forest show stable structure based upon above physical parameters. pH varied from acidic to slightly alkaline range under different LUSs with lowest mean value of pH under forestry (6.42) fallowed by agriculture irrigated (7.14) and highest under waste lands (7.65). The electrical conductively was found normal under all land uses. The soil organic carbon was found highest under forests (23.68 gkg-1), followed by pasture (20.80 gkg-1) and lowest value under waste lands (3.80 gkg-1) followed by agriculture irrigated (4.35 gkg-1). CaCO3 found highest under wastelands (2.86%) and lowest under forests (0.92%). Thus it may be concluded that the different land uses have significant effect on soil physico-chemical properties of soil which in turn lead to the change in nutrient status of soil.