Morphological and Physico-chemical Characterization of Salt-Affected Soils of Muktsar District of Punjab

Abstract

Nine representatives salt-affected (P1 to P9) soils from Muktsar district of Punjab were studied for their morphological and physico-chemical characteristics. Pedon P1, P2 and P3 belong to saline soils, P4, P5 and P6 categorised as sodic soils and P7, P8 and P9 represent the saline-sodic soils. These pedons have weak to moderate, fine to medium subangular blocky structure in A and B horizon and massive structure in C horizons. The calcretes in saline-sodic soils were comparable to saline soils but higher than sodic soils. The texture of these soils varied from silty clay loam, silt, and silt loam through loam to sandy loam. The pH of the soil ranged from 8.3 to 10.2, 8.6 to 10.0 and 8.2 to 9.4 in saline, sodic and saline-sodic soils, respectively. Electrical conductivity in surface horizon varied from 4.96 to 19.1 dS m-1 in saline soils, 0.44 to 2.25 dS m-1 in sodic-soils and 2.30 to 11.8 dS m-1 in saline-sodic soils. Organic carbon content ranged from 0.02 to 0.87 per cent in saline soils, 0.01 to 0.29 per cent in sodic soils and 0.01 to 0.68 per cent in saline-sodic soils and decreased with depth. Calcium and magnesium cations were dominated on the exchange complex and their content varied from 3.2 to 6.4 cmol(+)kg-1 and that of Na+ and K+ varied from 0.09 to 2.87 and 0.06 to 2.33 cmol(+)kg-1, respectively.