Vertical distribution of soil chemical properties under different land use systems of Biligirirangana Hills, Karnataka

Abstract

Globally, efforts are being made to identify land use types that could potentially improve carbon sequestration and soil fertility to ensure sustainable agriculture. Secondary nutrients and micronutrients in soil are crucial for improved crop output and require a detailed understanding of their status and sources of variation. Therefore, in order to evaluate the changes in soil chemical properties of soils, an experiment was conducted in Biligirirangana hills with soil samples from three soil depths i.e. 0-15, 15-30, and 30-45 cm of six prominent land-use systems viz. natural forest, a forest plantation, pure coffee system, coffee multi-storeyed system, agriculture mono, and mixed cropping systems. Among different land use systems (LUSs), signi icantly higher mean soil organic carbon and available nitrogen -1 content were recorded in surface soils of natural forest (37.09 g kg ) and pure coffee system -1 (414.99 kg ha ), respectively. The cation exchange capacity and percent base saturation were -1 signi icantly higher in natural forest (28.22 cmol (p+) kg soil and 76.56 % respectively) and -1 lower in agriculture mono-cropping (13.83 cmol (p+) kg soil and 39.50 %, respectively). The exchangeable calcium, magnesium, available sulfur and DTPA extractable micronutrients were higher in natural forest and tree-based LUSss compare to agriculture LUSss. The correlation analysis revealed that soil SOC had a positive effect on the availability of available secondary and DTPA extractable micronutrients in soils.