Vol. 10, Issue 7 (2021)

Author(s):
Munmun Majhi, Vivek Kumar, Kumar Chiranjeeb, Rahul Kumar Raushan, Mani Mesha Nand and Laxman Ram

Abstract:
Understanding the effects of soil depth on the dynamics of soil properties under different land covers is essential to establish appropriate management options aiming at sustaining soil health and restoring degraded soils in the highlands. This study was conducted with an aim to analyse the spatial variability of soil properties with depth under forestland of pundibari, Cooch Behar, west Bengal. The soil samples were collected from surface (0-15 cm) and sub-surface soil (15-30 cm) in replicates and total 30 soil samples were collected from Rasomoti and Sonapur forest range. Among the chemical properties soil pH was studied and in terms of physical aspect, percentage of sand, silt and clay were calculated. Statistical analysis revealed significant variation in soil properties with along the selected land use. Topsoil layer had significantly greater amount of sand and silt concentrations than the subsoil layers. Outcomes indicated that their % was highest under heterogeneous plantation. However, clay concentration and soil pH revealed the reverse trends. Clay has no significant correlation with selected soil properties except with sand fraction in the sampled depths. Hence, the correlation among the selected soil properties also varies with soil depth. On an average the variation of soil properties was found to be higher in heterogeneous forest stand. In general, the spatial variability of soil properties indicates that they were strongly affected by external factors (agricultural treatments and soil management practices) and internal factors (soil type and depth).