Original Articles
Vaneet Kumar, Sandip Singh Bha
Abstract
Physico-chemical parameters are among the basic attributes for the study of soil, as they play an important role in the health of soil and crops. In the present study, an attempt was made to study the seasonal changes in physicochemical parameters of 24 soil samples collected from agricultural fields of 6 villages situated on the banks of rivers Beas and Sutlej during two consecutive seasons (October 2012 and April 2013). The physico-chemical parameters analyzed in this study included pH, bulk density (BD), water holding capacity (WHC), total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), total available phosphorous (TAP), total potassium (TK+) and total sodium (TNa+). Difference in the content of these parameters was statistically analyzed using student’s T-test. In the present study, pH of different soil samples ranged from 7.33 to 8.05 and 7.53 to 8.06, for 1st and 2nd sampling, respectively, indicating the alkaline nature of the soil. Overall range of BD was from 0.968 to 1.324 g/cc. Total Organic Carbon (TOC) content varied from 0.41% to 4.18% for sampling 1, while it ranged from 0.34 to 6.21% for 2nd sampling. Total nitrogen content ranged from 0.05% to 0.23% and 0.05% to 0.219% for samplings 1 and 2, respectively. TAP ranged from 0.64 to 2.44% for sampling 1 and 0.36 to 2.42% for sampling 2. The content of Potassium ranged from 2.20 to 3.91% and 1.66 to 3.96%, while that of sodium ranged from 0.56 to 1.57% and 0.57 to 1.11% for samplings 1 and 2, respectively. Results of T-test showed that, water holding capacity was found to vary in fields which were situated near the banks of rivers in consecutive samplings. The content of K+ and Na+ was found to vary in maximum number of fields (83%) studied in sampling 1 and 2. Except two agricultural fields the content of total nitrogen remained same in all the samples studied