Record Details

Impact of postburn jhum agriculture on soil carbon pools in the north-eastern Himalayan region of India

KRISHI: Publication and Data Inventory Repository

View Archive Info
 
 
Field Value
 
Title Impact of postburn jhum agriculture on soil carbon pools in the north-eastern Himalayan region of India
Not Available
 
Creator Lungmuana, B.U. Choudhury, Saurav Saha, S.B. Singh, A. Das, J Buragohain, V. Dayal, A.R. Singh, T. Boopathi, S.K. Dutta
 
Subject carbon cycling
ecosystem
land degradation
soil quality
 
Description Not Available
Land-use change, particularly soil organic carbon (SOC) loss induced by shifting cultivation (jhum) is a common land degradation issue in the hilly tracts of the humid tropics. The SOC concentration comprises different pools (labile and recalcitrant fractions), and each fraction responds to temporal dynamics of adopted management practices at varying magnitudes, such as deforestation followed by cultivation. However, information on the variation of different SOC pools due to cultural practices of vegetation burning and postburn agricultural practices (crop production) associated with shifting cultivation remains inadequate. In the present investigation, we examined the effect of burning and postburning cultivation on SOC pools across different forest fallow periods at Kolasib district, Mizoram state of the north-eastern Himalayan Region of India. Results revealed increase in the soil C stocks and total organic carbon (TOC) due to the increase in the length of fallow periods ranging from 3 to 23 years. The TOC decreased significantly compared with antecedent concentrations before vegetation burning. This was mostly attributed to the reduction in contribution of active pools (very labile and labile) to TOC from 69% to 60%. However, contribution of passive pools (less labile and nonlabile) to TOC concentration increased from 31% to 40%. Postburn cultivation also resulted in reduction of TOC as well as considerable variation in the proportion of different SOC pools to TOC concentration. Among the different pools of SOC, the very labile C pool was most sensitive to land-use change induced by shifting cultivation (phytomass burning and postburn cultivation). The labile SOC pools can act as a sensitive indicator for devising suitable location specific management practices for restoration of soil health through SOC dynamics in degraded jhum lands in hilly ecosystems.
Not Available
 
Date 2018-11-12T04:23:40Z
2018-11-12T04:23:40Z
2018-08-21
 
Type Article
 
Identifier Not Available
Not Available
http://krishi.icar.gov.in/jspui/handle/123456789/10208
 
Language English
 
Relation Not Available;
 
Publisher CSIRO