PHYSICO-CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF SOIL IN RELATION TO SPECIES COMPOSITION AND DIVERSITY OF SUBTROPICAL AND TEMPERATE FOREST STANDS IN THE WESTERN HIMALAYA
VINOD C. JOSHI *
G. B Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment, Kosi-Katarmal, Almora, Uttarakhand, India.
DEEPA BISHT
G. B Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment, Kosi-Katarmal, Almora, Uttarakhand, India.
R. C. SUNDRIYAL
Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, HNB Garhwal University, Srinagar, Uttarakhand, India.
NAVEEN CHANDRA
Uttarakhand Space Application Centre, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India.
DHANI ARYA
Department of Botany, S. S. J, University Almora, Uttarakahnd, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The present communication aims to envisage the physico-chemical properties of soils in relation to the vegetational parameter in the subtropical and temperate forest stands of Western Himalaya. A total of four forest stands were investigated for various vegetational and physico-chemical properties ranging from 300-2250 m m.s.l. The study revealed that the soil moisture, water holding capacity (WHC) and total nitrogen recorded maximum (26.33%, 63.52%, and 0.41% respectively) in the mixed oak forest stands and minimum (19.09%, 46.28%, and 0.14% respectively) in the sal forest stands, however, the soil organic carbon (SOC) was reported maximum (4.25%) in banj-oak forest and minimum (1.23%) in sal forest stands. Temperate oak forests are richer in terms of specie richness, diversity as well as physical and chemical properties of soil as compare to subtropical sal and chir-pine forest stands. This result indicate that the soil nutrient dynamics is positively correlated with species diversity and richness of forest.
Keywords: Oak and pine forest, organic carbon, soil nutrient, tree density