Land use impacts hydro-physical attributes of soil
Keywords:
Hydro-physical, intensive cultivation, land use, Soil healthAbstract
The study was undertaken with an aim to assess the variability in hydro-physical properties of soil as influenced by divergent land use systems. It was anticipated that studied properties under natural systems are optimum for plant growth while cultivated systems might be experiencing deterioration in soil quality. To test this hypothesis, a soil survey comprising of 168 surface and sub-surface soil samples was conducted in zone I and II of Himachal Pradesh. The results aligned with the hypothesis and indicated that bulk density and particle density were lower in natural systems with 50 per cent of the samples below 1.26 and 2.58 g cm-3 in surface soils, respectively. Improved porosity (median, 51.2%) and water holding capacity (median, 45.0%) were also observed under natural systems. Conversely, sub-surface soils exhibited marginally higher bulk and particle densities, alongside markedly reduced mean porosity and WHC across all the land uses examined.
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