Nutrient cycling in the major ecosystems of the cold desert of Himachal Pradesh, India

Nutrient cycling study was carried out in three major ecosystems, viz. forest ecosystem, alpine pasture ecosys­tem and agroecosystem of Goshal village, Lahaul and Spiti district, Himachal Pradesh, India to assess the flow of nutrients from one ecosystem to another. Soil nutrients, plant biomass and nutrient content of grasses, herbs and woody species present in the study area were estimated. It was observed that in forest and alpine pasture ecosystems, nutrients from the woody species return to the system. In the alpine pasture ecosystem, of the total nutrients present in grasses and herbs, 30% returned to the system after decomposition and the remaining 70% was transferred to agricultural fields through grazing. In the agroecosystem, 90% of aboveground biomass of grasses and herbs was harvested as fodder for winter stall feeding, which returned to the agricultural fields as farmyard manure. Thus, 100% of belowground and 10% of aboveground nutrients in the agroecosystem remained in the field, got decomposed and returned to the system.