Impact of vehicular pollution on nutrient status of roadside soils

Abstract

The present study was conducted with an aim to assess the impact of vehicular pollution on nutrient status of roadside saffron soils at two sites (SI and SII) of Pampore tehsil (Galandhar and Lethpora) from March, 2018 to February, 2019. Twelve composite soil samples collected randomly from each site and each season were analysed for the assessment of available nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) as per their prescribed standard procedures. Among the study sites L4 of S II revealed the highest concentration of available N, available P and available K (197.7, 17.89 and 92.56 mg/kg) whereas L1 of site I recorded the lowest concentration (161.7, 11.94 and 72.23 mg/kg). With regard to seasons maximum concentration of available N, available P and available K (210.9, 19.54 and 97.01 mg/kg) was obtained during summer and minimum concentration (150.4, 11.03 and 67.94 mg/kg) was obtained during spring. Factor mean of available N, available P and available K was minimum at L1 (162.2, 12.10 and 72.51 mg/kg) and maximum (197.2, 17.65 and 92.94 mg/kg) at L4. Our results suggest that soils of roadside are depleted of nutrients.