Effects of Hydrogel on Physical and Chemical Properties of Soil

This experiment was performed at the Rajiv Gandhi South Campus, Barkachha (BHU) Mirzapur, as a pot culture study, from November 2018 to March 2019–20. This experiment is a completely randomised design, taking three replications with six treatments, i.e., T1: Control, T2: 5 g kg-1 Hydrogel, T3: 10 g kg-1 Hydrogel, T4: 15 g kg-1 Hydrogel, T5: 20 g kg-1 Hydrogel, and T6: 25 g kg-1 Hydrogel. The soil was incubated with different doses of hydrogel for 120 days. The samples were collected after incubation, processed in a laboratory, and analysed for physical and chemical properties of soil. The results demonstrated that the use of hydrogel had a significant impact on the various soil properties, particularly the water holding capacity and bulk density of the soil. Other soil properties that were significantly influenced were particle density, porosity, electrical conductivity, soil available nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and sulfur. However, the application of hydrogel did not influence the pH of soil or the organic carbon content of soil. The application of hydrogel at a rate of 25 g kg1 showed the highest values of available N, P, K, and S content in soil as well as the water holding capacity. In some soil properties, the treatment containing 25 g kg-1 hydrogel was found to be statistically equivalent to that containing 20 g kg-1 hydrogel

Microbial and Enzyme Activities and Carbon Stock in Unique Coastal Acid Saline Soils of Goa

The aim of the present investigation was to study the effects of salinity under low soil pH conditions on soil microbial and enzyme activities and to quantify soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks in coastal saline soils of Goa, India. Global positioning system based replicated soil samples collected from fifteen different locations showed characteristic variations in electrical conductivity (0.09–6.29\ua0dS m), soil pH (4.11–6.57), exchangeable sodium (Na) (7.40–23.2\ua0meq\ua0100\ua0g) and exchangeable sodium percentage (48.3–85.7\ua0%). Exchangeable Na was the most dominant cation among all the cations analyzed at all the sites. The total SOC stock of the study sites varied significantly (p\ua

Study of Physio-chemical Properties of Soil in Various Land Use Systems of Krishna District, Andhra Pradesh, India

A study was carried out to evaluate the impact of various land use systems on the physiochemical characteristics of the soil of Krishna District, Andhra Pradesh. The samples were collected from various land use systems (normally cultivated land, plantation, forest, fruit and vegetable) at two different depths (0-15 cm and 15-30 cm) and analysed at the Soil Science - Soil and Water Conservation Laboratory at the Rajiv Gandhi South Campus, Banaras Hindu University, Barkachha, Uttar Pradesh. Geographically, the experimental site is located under the tropical zone at the coordinates of 16.4° N and 81.0° E. The obtained results showed that the maximum bulk density (1.58 Mg/m3), particle density (2.7 Mg/m3) at lower depth of 15-30 cm, water holding capacity (49.70%) and highest porosity (48.68%) in upper soil layer (0-15 cm) in normally cultivation land. Forest land had showed the highest organic carbon content of 0.77% and 0.71% soil in two different study depths of 0-15 cm and 15-30 cm, respectively. Also, the maximum availability of nitrogen (280.17 kg/ha), phosphorus (18.63 kg/ha), potassium (212.65 kg/ha) and sulphur (8.64 mg/kg of soil) were reported in forest, Vegetable, fruit and cultivated land respectively, in upper soil layer (0-15 cm), also all were found to depleting with increasing soil depths. The results of this study showed that land use patterns had considerable impact on many soil physiochemical properties. This study have a great importance for improving the standard of the produce, raising crop yields by a greater percentage through nutrient management, appropriate soil conservation practices and also, for better prevention of the environment

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Not AvailableLand degradation is becoming a serious problem in the west coast region of India where one of the world's eight biodiversity hotspots, the ‘Western Ghats’, is present. Poor land management practices and high rainfall have led to increasing problems associated with land degradation. A long-term (13-year) experiment was done to evaluate the impact of soil and water conservation measures on soil carbon sequestration and soil quality at three different depths under cashew nut cultivation on a 19% slope. Five soil and water conservation measures - continuous contour trenches, staggered contour trenches, halfmoon terraces, semi-elliptical trenches, and graded trenches all with vegetative barriers of Stylosanthes scabra and Vetiveria zizanoides and control were evaluated for their influence on soil properties, carbon sequestration, and soil quality under cashews. The soil and water conservation measures improved significantly the soil organic carbon, soil organic carbon stock, carbon sequestration rate and microbial activity compared to the control condition (without any measures). Among the measures tested, continuous contour trenches with vegetative barriers outperformed the others with respect to soil organic carbon stock, sequestration rate, and microbial activity. The lower metabolic quotient with the measures compared to the control indicated alleviation of environmental stress on microbes. Using principal component analysis and a correlation matrix, a minimum dataset was identified as the soil available nitrogen, bulk density, basal soil respiration, soil pH, acid phosphatase activity, and soil available boron and these were the most important soil properties controlling the soil quality. Four soil quality indices using two summation methods (additive and weighted) and two scoring methods (linear and non-linear) were developed using the minimum dataset. A linear weighted soil quality index was able to statistically differentiate the effect of soil and water conservation measures from that of the control. The highest value of the soil quality index of 0.98 was achieved with continuous contour trenches with a vegetative barrier. The results of the study indicate that soil and water conservation measures for cashews are a potential strategy to improve the soil carbon sequestration and soil quality along with improving crop productivity and reducing the erosion losses.Indian Council of Agricultural Researc