Land Uses, Altitude and Texture Effects on Soil Parameters. A Comparative Study in Two Districts of Nagaland, Northeast India

Gaurav Mishra and Rosa Francaviglia
Additional contact information
Gaurav Mishra: Division of Silviculture and Forest Management, Rain Forest Research Institute, Jorhat 785001, Assam, India
Rosa Francaviglia: Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Research Centre for Agriculture and Environment, 00184 Rome, Italy

Agriculture, 2021, vol. 11, issue 2, 1-13

Abstract: Northeast (NE) India is a typical tropical ecosystem with a luxuriant forest vegetation cover, but nowadays forests are under stress due to exploitation and land use changes, which are known to affect soil health and productivity. However, due to a scarcity of data, the influence of land uses and altitude on soil properties of this peculiar ecosystem is poorly quantified. This study presents the changes in soil properties in two districts of Nagaland (Mon and Zunheboto) in relation to land uses (forest, plantation, jhum and fallow jhum), altitude (<500 m, 500–1000 m, >1000 m) and soil texture (coarse, medium, fine). For this, a random soil sampling was performed in both the districts. Results indicated that soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks and available potassium (K) were significantly influenced by land uses in the Mon district, while in Zunheboto a significant difference was observed in available phosphorus (P) content. SOC stocks showed an increasing trend with elevation in both districts. The influence of altitude on P was significant and the maximum concentration was at lower elevations (<500 m). In Mon, soil texture significantly affected SOC stocks and the available N and P content. The variability in soil properties due to land uses, altitudinal gradients and textural classes can be better managed with the help of management options, which are still needed for this ecosystem.

Keywords: land use; altitude; soil texture; soil organic carbon; soil nutrients; India (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/11/2/171/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/11/2/171/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:11:y:2021:i:2:p:171-:d:502008

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().