Evaluation of saturated hydraulic conductivity from soil properties in an Inceptisol using different land cover and depths

hree soil profiles from Regional Research Station of Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Gayeshpur situated in New Alluvial zone of Nadia district, West Bengal were studied to assess the predictability of the hydraulic conductivity of the soil as influenced by different physical and chemical and properties of cultivated and forest land. The various statistical procedures were employed on the measured laboratory based data for comprehensive agree-ment of dependent hydraulic conductivity of soils as a model function of independent soil variables that is likely to be useful for different land cover systems. Soils are neutral in reaction, silty clay to silty clay loam in nature. Forest soil contained greater organic carbon (OC) (5.9 ± 0.16 g kg-1) compared to cultivated soil (4.4 ± 0.34 g kg-1). Jhau plan-tation recorded the highest value (6.8 g kg-1) of OC due to soil texture and cation exchange capacity (CEC). Soil hydraulic conductivity was greater in soil for cabbage and Sagun tree among the cultivated and forest soil studied with values 2.80 and 1.10 cmh -1. Correlation study showed a positive and negative relation with hydraulic conductiv-ity for sand (r= 0.68; P > 0.05) and clay (r= - 0.71; P > 0.05) respectively. Further, principal component analysis con-cluded that addition of bulk density with clay and sand can predict the hydraulic conductivity for different land uses