Assessment of soil biological properties under different land uses in north eastern zone of Kashmir valley

Abstract

The present investigation entitled “Assessment of soil biological properties under different land uses in north eastern zone of Jammu & Kashmir” was carried out with a view to ascertain the biological properties of soils under different land uses viz. Forest, pasture, apple, vegetable, maize and paddy. On the basis of detailed survey and random sampling, representative soil samples from two depths i.e. 0-20 cm and 20-40 cm were collected. The highest mean content (µg g-1soil) of microbial biomass carbon (252.07), nitrogen (36.00) and phosphorus (5.98) was found in forest followed by pasture > apple > vegetable > maize and lowest was found in paddy. The highest bacterial count (cfu ×106 g-1 soil) was found in forestry with a mean value of (76.20) while, lowest (63.60) was found in maize. The highest (30.00 cfu ×105 g-1 soil) fungal count was found in forest and lowest value was recorded in paddy in surface and sub-surface soils, respectively. It was concluded that biological properties assessed for different land uses were found higher in forest soils as compared to cultivated soils and decreased with increase in depth.