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Soil Degradation Effect on Soil Productivity, Carbon Pools and Soil Enzyme Activity


Affiliations
1 Indian Institute of Soil Science, Nabibagh, Bhopal 462 038, India
2 Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Viswa Vidyalaya, Jabalpur 482 004, India
 

Land degradation is one of the major causes of decline in soil productivity. However, the quantitative relationship between degradation and productivity is not fully understood in soils of India. Thus, an experiment was conducted under a range of native soil organic carbon (SOC) levels in two soil types (Inceptisol and Alfisol) of subtropical India. The SOC content under the treatments was 1.61%, 1.01% and 0.77% in Inceptisol and 0.36%, 0.25% and 0.21% in Alfisol under C1 (undepleted soil), C2 (low depletion) and C3 (medium depletion) treatments respectively. Soybean was grown under each SOC level, with four management practices, viz. (1) control, (2) recommended dose of fertilizers (RDF) + 10 Mg farmyard manure (FYM) ha-1, (3) 20 Mg FYM ha-1 and (4) 150% RDF, in three replicates in a factorial completely randomized design. Results indicated significant and positive effect of both SOC and management treatment on plant biomass yield, labile (KMnO4 oxidizable) carbon, soil microbial biomass carbon (SMBC), dehydrogenase activity, soil bulk density (BD) and penetration resistance (PR). The plant biomass reduced by 45% and 29% under C3 (compared to C1) in Inceptisol and Alfisol respectively. The effect of SOC depletion was conspicuous in Inceptisol. The labile C reduced by 47% and 16% under C3 in Inceptisol and Alfisol respectively. SMBC showed a corresponding decrease of 33% and 29%. The soil physical properties, viz. BD and PR showed conspicuous effect of SOC depletion. PR increased by 324% and 75% for Inceptisol and Alfisol respectively.

Keywords

Labile Carbon, Soil Degradation and Productivity, Soil Microbial Biomass, Soil Physical Properties.
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  • Soil Degradation Effect on Soil Productivity, Carbon Pools and Soil Enzyme Activity

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Authors

Narendra K. Lenka
Indian Institute of Soil Science, Nabibagh, Bhopal 462 038, India
S. P. Jaiswal
Indian Institute of Soil Science, Nabibagh, Bhopal 462 038, India
J. K. Thakur
Indian Institute of Soil Science, Nabibagh, Bhopal 462 038, India
S. Lenka
Indian Institute of Soil Science, Nabibagh, Bhopal 462 038, India
A. Mandal
Indian Institute of Soil Science, Nabibagh, Bhopal 462 038, India
A. K. Dwivedi
Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Viswa Vidyalaya, Jabalpur 482 004, India
B. L. Lakaria
Indian Institute of Soil Science, Nabibagh, Bhopal 462 038, India
A. K. Biswas
Indian Institute of Soil Science, Nabibagh, Bhopal 462 038, India
A. K. Shukla
Indian Institute of Soil Science, Nabibagh, Bhopal 462 038, India
D. S. Yashona
Indian Institute of Soil Science, Nabibagh, Bhopal 462 038, India

Abstract


Land degradation is one of the major causes of decline in soil productivity. However, the quantitative relationship between degradation and productivity is not fully understood in soils of India. Thus, an experiment was conducted under a range of native soil organic carbon (SOC) levels in two soil types (Inceptisol and Alfisol) of subtropical India. The SOC content under the treatments was 1.61%, 1.01% and 0.77% in Inceptisol and 0.36%, 0.25% and 0.21% in Alfisol under C1 (undepleted soil), C2 (low depletion) and C3 (medium depletion) treatments respectively. Soybean was grown under each SOC level, with four management practices, viz. (1) control, (2) recommended dose of fertilizers (RDF) + 10 Mg farmyard manure (FYM) ha-1, (3) 20 Mg FYM ha-1 and (4) 150% RDF, in three replicates in a factorial completely randomized design. Results indicated significant and positive effect of both SOC and management treatment on plant biomass yield, labile (KMnO4 oxidizable) carbon, soil microbial biomass carbon (SMBC), dehydrogenase activity, soil bulk density (BD) and penetration resistance (PR). The plant biomass reduced by 45% and 29% under C3 (compared to C1) in Inceptisol and Alfisol respectively. The effect of SOC depletion was conspicuous in Inceptisol. The labile C reduced by 47% and 16% under C3 in Inceptisol and Alfisol respectively. SMBC showed a corresponding decrease of 33% and 29%. The soil physical properties, viz. BD and PR showed conspicuous effect of SOC depletion. PR increased by 324% and 75% for Inceptisol and Alfisol respectively.

Keywords


Labile Carbon, Soil Degradation and Productivity, Soil Microbial Biomass, Soil Physical Properties.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv112%2Fi12%2F2434-2439