A Study of Some Physical Properties of Two Different Soil Textures Planted with Conocarpus Trees (Conocarpuslancifolius. Engl)

Abstract


 
 
 
 This research has been conducted to study the effect of Conocarpus trees and their roots on some of soilphysical properties. The soil physical properties are moisture content , bulk density , total porosity , mean weight diameter (dry sieveing) and soil penetration resistance . Some soil samples are collected from two locations :the first location is Agric. College research, Garmat Ali, stations , Basra university , and the second location isZuwber province farm . The soil texture of the first location is silty clay which is classified as fine clay mixed Calcarioushy perthermictypictorrifluvent, while the soil texture of the second location is sandy loam. This soil is classified with in species Entisol and under species psamments and high group , underhigh group and family (Typictorripsamments, Calcarious Mixed Hyperthermic). The soil samples are collected from two soil depths( 0 – 30 and 30 – 60) from both locations are planted with Conocarpus trees, their ages ranged between 4 to 5 years . The trees height is 2.5 – 3.0 m . Another soil samples are also collected from unplanted soil with Conocarpus trees. The results reveated that the silty clay soil is significantly surpassed the sandy loam soil in moisture content and mean weight diameter by a percentage of 68.76% and 32.91% respectively . Whereas, the bulk density and soil penetration resistance decreased , while the total porosity of the silty clay soil as compared with sandy loam soil .For unplanted soil, moisture content, the bulk density and the soil penetration resistance are increased as compared with planted soil . The soil depth (30 – 60)cm is surpassed soil depth of ( 0- 30)cm in giving higher values of moisture content andbulk density whereas it does not significantly affect the mean weight diameter and soil penetration resistance .