Soil Physical Properties under Different Land Use Systems in Tarai Region of Uttarakhand, India

Soil physical properties play a key role in maintaining and improving soil health by influencing the structure of soil, porosity, water infiltration, aggregation, and various chemical and biological properties. The physical properties are influenced by the various cultivation and management practices, land use patterns and cropping systems. In the present study the effect of different types of land use systems on soil physical properties viz. BD, PD, porosity, and WHC at 0-15 cm and 15-30 cm depth were studied. The land use systems taken for the study were diversified cereal crop based systems with the inclusion of legumes, an orchard based system, a vegetable based system and an uncultivated system. A total of 66 soil samples from 0-15 cm and 15-30 cm depth were analysed for soils physical properties using F test of significance at 5% value of CD. The results showed that the bulk density for various land use systems ranged from 1.15 Mg/m3 to 1.44 Mg/m3; 1.29 Mg/m3 to 1.63 Mg/m3, particle density from 2.61 Mg/m3 to 2.69 Mg/m3; 2.61 Mg/m3 to 2.67 Mg/m3, porosity % from 45.85% to 56.04%; 38.98% to 50.48%, water holding capacity from 41.69% to 56.39%; 40.8% to 55.27%, at 0-15 cm and 15-30 cm soil depth, respectively. The results revealed that better soil physical properties were observed in those land use systems that included legumes as compared to those without legumes i.e. vegetable based and orchard based while the uncultivated system showed lowest values for all studied physical properties. From the study, it was concluded that the land use systems that followed legume inclusion along with diversification of crops showed better physical properties and health of the soil.