Macarisa Sungoh, Amarendra Kumar Singh, Merasenla Ao, Kizukala Jamir and Osin Mengu
Abstract
Composite soil samples were collected at two depths (0-15 and 15-30 cm) from five villages in the Thadlaskein block and analyzed for various properties at two depths. The different land uses were forest (pine forest), rice, ginger, and mixed cropping. In both surface and sub-surface soil the texture of forest, ginger, and mixed cropping land use system ranged from sandy clay loam to clay loam, whereas, for rice land use system the texture varied from silty clay loam to silty clay. In general, the soil pH was moderately acidic for all four land uses. Surface soils showed lower bulk density and particle density than sub-surface soils. Bulk density and particle density at both soil depths were higher in forest and mixed cropping land use systems, respectively. Porosity was highest under the ginger land use system at 0-15 cm depth and lowest under the mixed cropping system at 15-30 cm depth. High organic carbon was recorded in all land uses on both surface (2.46 to 2.62%) and sub-surface soils (1.87 to 2.06%) which declined with soil depth. Higher organic carbon was reported in forest land use systems. Available nitrogen and available sulphur were found to be low to medium and available phosphorus and available potassium were found to be medium. Available N, P, K, and S were recorded to be highest under ginger land use system. Different forms of acidity contributed in varying amounts to the total potential acidity in each of the four land uses. The main contribution to potential acidity was pH-dependent acidity. As per the results of correlation studies, organic carbon showed positive significant correlation with nitrogen, potassium, sulphur and CEC, whereas pH showed negative significant correlation with exchange acidity, exchange aluminium, total potential acidity and pH-dependent acidity components.