Soil Mineralogy of Forest Soils of Chamoli District, Uttarakhand

Abstract

Soil properties and sand mineralogy were studied in forest area of Chamoli district of Uttarakhand covering four forest divisions namely Badrinath Forest Division, Kedarnath Wildlife Forest Division, Nanda Devi National Park and Alaknanda Soil Conservation Forest Division with different ranges viz. Chamoli, Joshimath, Gopeshwar, Madhya Pindari, Paschim Pindari, Naraingarh, Dhanpur, Attagad, Nandprayag and Pipalkoti. The study area was selected on the basis of altitude, vegetation distribution, parent material and topography. The forest type of the area is Himalayan moist temperate forests with Picea smithiana, Cedrus deodara, Quercus leucotrichophora, Pinus roxburghii, and Miscellaneous (Amaltas, Rohani, Asain, Semal and Mahua) as the dominant species. Geologically, the rocks of the study area are pre-cambrian to early paleozoic in age with recent and subrecent deposits. The soils were generally sandy loam in texture with acidic pH. Organic carbon is generally higher in forest areas at high altitude with maximum accumulation in the surface layer. Cation exchange capacity of the soil in different depth showed inconsistent trend. Exchangeable Ca2+and Mg2+ increased in the sub-surface horizons in some of the profiles due to presence of limestone parent material. The study suggested that P. smithiana grows well on schist and gneiss, C. deodara flourishes well on limestone, dolomite and quartzite, Q. leucotrichophora flourishes with good regeneration on phyllite and slate, P. roxburghii grows on quartzite and limestone and miscellaneous forests on boulders, limestone, shales, pebbles. Mineralogical composition showed that variations are mostly due to nature of parent rock and weathering stage. The study, therefore, indicates the presence of low to moderate amounts of weatherable minerals suggesting their podzolic nature.