Abstract
Deforestation affects the soil quality and health by means of various clearing operations, more intense exposure of the soil to weather influences, change in quality and quantity of organic matter input. Present study was undertaken to investigate the changes in soil physical properties due to deforestation, various lands clearing and subsequent land use practices in and around the Nongkhyllem Wildlife Sanctuary, Meghalaya. The sanctuary lies between 25°45' - 26°00' N latitude and 91°45' 92°00' E longitude. Soils from two depth (0 -15 cm, 15- 30 cm) were collected during 2018-19 from 15 selected places of three sites (Site 1 was un-disturbed, Site 2 semi-disturbed and Site 3 disturbed). Samples were analyzed with standard methodologies. Texture of the soil is dominant by the sand content and contained more than 50% of the soil as revealed by the particle size analysis. The sand percentage was found to be lowest in the deep forest 84.76% followed by semi disturbed area 86.1%, then highest in deforested area 86.26%. Soil particle density in the deep forest in both the depths (0-15 cm and 15-30cm) were found to be highest as compared to the other two sites, viz., semi-disturbed site or deforested area. The soil bulk density of deep forest was found to be the lowest among the three and the deforested or the disturbed area was found to be the highest. As deforestation increased Soil moisture has reduced, bulk density increased, soil particle density decreased clay decreased and sand percentage increased. Simple correlations among soil physical properties indicate the possible reasons for changes in these properties following soil removal and subsequent deforestation.
Highlights
Soil physical properties mostly affect the availability of water contents, nutrients and their dynamics, oxygen to plants and sustainable productive forest growth
Soil data obtained in this study were analyzed using SPSS statistical package for analysis of variance (ANOVA) to compare different soil physical characteristics such as bulk density, water holding capacity, soil moisture content etc
Soil physical properties and their changes have been studied in comparison with virgin forest and deforested in details
Summary
Soil physical properties mostly affect the availability of water contents, nutrients and their dynamics, oxygen to plants and sustainable productive forest growth. Factors responsible for soil degradation, soil quality loss are, deforestation, cultivation and irrigation, overgrazing, excessive use of chemical fertilizers, intensive cropping system, Urbanization, imbalanced nutrient application etc. Deforestation takes the trees off land which can lead to instability in the ground, making fields and houses easier to create but leaving this area more susceptible to landslides, wind, and other natural weather patterns. It affects the soil quality and health by means of various clearing operations, more intense exposure of the soil to weather influences, change in quality and quantity of organic matter input. This study was undertaken to investigate the changes in soil physical properties due to deforestation, various lands clearing and subsequent land use practices in and around the Nongkhyllem Wildlife Sanctuary, Meghalaya
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