Impact of Different Land Use Systems on Soil Properties in a Watershed of Lower Himalayan Region

The soil properties of the different land uses were studied in various landscape positions in lower Himalayan watershed of India. Soil properties such as bulk density showed lowest value in forest land use with mean value of 1.15 Mg m−3 Sand and silt contents were more in nalabed and agriculture-fallow land use, respectively in lower landscape, whereas clay content ranged from 6.7 to 27.2% in whole watershed. The soils of the entire watershed were acidic in nature. The organic carbon content was found in increasing order of forest > degraded forest > scrub > orchard > agriculture > nalabed. Organic carbon content was recorded lower in agricultural land use than forest because of soil disturbance by intense cultivation on slopping lands. The total nitrogen (Total N) content was higher in forest land use of upper landscape (0.13 to 0.22% with mean value of 0.16%) than other other land use systems. Available P varied from 0.8 to 31.2 kg ha−1 in the entire watershed with higher values in agriculture land use (mean value of 19.5 kg ha−1) due to continuous application of phosphatic fertilizer. Whereas available K was higher in forest land use (158 kg ha−1) than the other land use in watershed. The present investigation revealed that land use has a great influence on soil properties mostly through its effect on soil organic matter and total N. It was evident from the study that cultivation on the various landscape position have resulted in a significant deterioration of soil properties especially in physical and chemical attributes.