Effect of land use systems on soil properties and relationship between soil organic carbon and available nutrients in a typical arid soils of Rajasthan

Abstract

A study on soils under different land uses namely Silviculture, agroforestry, orchards, grasslands, grazed lands and agriculture at Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur was conducted to monitor their effects on soil properties representing Typic Haplocambids. The soils had an overall status of OC, P and K as low (<0.50 %), medium (10.8 -25.7 kg P ha-1), medium to high (213-398 kg K ha-1), respectively. The soil organic carbon was highest under silviculture system (2.50 g kg-1) followed by grasslands (1.85 g kg-1). However soils under agriculture systems (pearl millet and arid legumes i.e. moth, moong and guar fields) alone showed relatively lower SOC content (1.52 g kg-1). The accumulation of available phosphorus and depletion of potassium was significant in agricultural fields (pearl millet and legumes based cropping system) compared to other land uses. Continuous cultivation and application of recommended dose of fertilizers (N & P) explain the variation observed in the content of the above nutrient. The soils were also found to be adequate in the DTPA extractable micronutrients (Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu). Higher amount of these micronutrients was recorded in silviculture over the other land use system studied. The present study also indicated that these available nutrients had significant and positive correlation with organic carbon content in tree-based system.