Archives

The study was conducted in soils of sub-montaneous districts of Punjab”, two sites were selected in ‘lower Shiwaliks foothills of Punjab locally known as Kandi area’ i.e Takarla from District Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar and Mukerian from District Hoshiarpur. The results showed that at Takarla the proportion of macroaggregates (0.25 to 2 mm) were higher in grassland and agro-forestry and proportion of microaggregates (0.1-0.25 mm) were higher in agro-forestry and cropland and in Mukerian, among the different land-uses, the macroaggregate (0.25 to 2mm) proportion was higher in grassland and crop and the proportion of microaggragates having size of <0.25 mm, were higher in agro-forestry followed by forestry, cropland and grassland. At Takarla and Mukerian macro-aggregate associated C ranged from73.0 to 1378.2 and 106.3 to 8203 mg kg-1, respectively and micro-aggregate associated C ranged between 386.9 to 923.6 and 1249.7 to 2565.0 mg kg-1, respectively. Macro-aggregates were richer in aggerate associated carbon at both the locations as compared to micro-aggregates. The cumulative carbon mineralized (Cmin) in 43 days of incubation under different land-use systems in Takarla and Mukrian, respectively, ranged from 33.4 to 48.6 ans 42.8 to 85.8 mg kg-1 of soil. Amount of C was mineralized was highest in the grassland followed by forestry at Takarla and the agro-forestry followed by forestry at Mukrian. At Takarla and Mukerian after 43 days of incubation at field capacity moisture and 25º C temperature, the cumulative N mineralized (Nmin) in 0-15 cm depth ranged from 70.0 to 109.7 and 63.0 to 116.7 mg N kg-1, respectively, under different land-use systems and was highest under forest land-use at both the sites.
Keywords: Agricultural land use, Aggregation, Carbon sequestration, Soil organic carbon, Mineralizable carbon and nitrogen