Climate plays a dominant role over land management in governing soil carbon dynamics in North Western Himalayas

Owais Ali Wani; Vikas Sharma; Shamal S Kumar; Subhash Babu; K R Sharma; Sanjay Singh Rathore; Sudeep Marwaha; Nazir A Ganai; S R Dar; Md Yeasin; Raghavendra Singh; Jaibir Tomar

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.117740

Climate plays a dominant role over land management in governing soil carbon dynamics in North Western Himalayas

J Environ Manage. 2023 Jul 15:338:117740. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.117740. Epub 2023 Apr 5.

Authors

Owais Ali Wani¹, Vikas Sharma², Shamal S Kumar³, Subhash Babu⁴, K R Sharma², Sanjay Singh Rathore⁵, Sudeep Marwaha⁶, Nazir A Ganai⁷, S R Dar⁸, Md Yeasin⁶, Raghavendra Singh⁹, Jaibir Tomar¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ Division of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Jammu, 180 009, Jammu & Kashmir, India; Division of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Kashmir, 190025, Jammu & Kashmir, India.
² Division of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Jammu, 180 009, Jammu & Kashmir, India.
³ Division of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Kashmir, 190025, Jammu & Kashmir, India.
⁴ Division of Agronomy, ICAR- Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, 110012, India. Electronic address: subhiari@gmail.com.
⁵ Division of Agronomy, ICAR- Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, 110012, India.
⁶ ICAR-Indian Agricultural Statistical Research Institute, New Delhi, 110012, India.
⁷ Office of the Vice Chancellor, Sher-e -Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Srinagar, 190025, Jammu & Kashmir, India.
⁸ RCRQ, Sher-e -Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Srinagar, 190025, Jammu & Kashmir, India.
⁹ ICAR-Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kanpur, 208024, India.
¹⁰ Janta Vedic College, Baraut, 250611, India.

PMID: 37027954
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.117740

Abstract

The soil carbon (C) dynamics is strongly influenced by climate and land-use patterns in the Himalayas. Therefore, soils under five prominent land use [e.g., maize (Zea mays), horticulture, natural forest, grassland, and wasteland] were sampled down up to 30 cm depth under two climatic conditions viz., temperate and subtropical to assess the impacts of climate and landuse on soil C dynamics. Results demonstrated that irrespective of land use, temperate soil contains 30.66% higher C than subtropical soils. Temperate soils under natural forests had the higher total organic carbon (TOC, 21.90 g kg^-1), Walkley-Black carbon (WBC, 16.42 g kg^-1), contents, and stocks (TOC, 66.92 Mg ha^-1 and WBC, 50.24 Mg ha^-1), and total soil organic matter (TSOM, 3.78%) concentration as compared to other land uses like maize, horticulture, grassland, and wasteland. Under both climatic conditions, maize land use had the lowest TOC 9.63, 6.55 g kg^-1 and WBC 7.22, 4.91 g kg^-1 at 0-15 and 15-30 cm soil depth, respectively. Horticulture land use had 62.58 and 62.61% higher TOC and WBC over maize-based land use under subtropical and temperate climatic conditions at 0-30 cm soil depth, respectively. However, soils of maize land use under temperate conditions had ∼2 times more TOC than in subtropical conditions. The study inferred that the C-losses is more in the subtropical soil than in temperate soils. Hence, the subtropical region needs more rigorous adoption of C conservation farming practices than the temperate climatic setting. Although, the adoption of C storing and conserving practices is crucial under both climatic settings to arrest land degradation. Horticultural land uses along with conservation effective soil management practices may be encouraged to restore more soil C and to improve the livelihood security of the hill populace in the North Western Himalayas.

Keywords: Carbon stock; Horticulture; Soil fertility; Structural equation modeling; Total organic carbon.

MeSH terms

Agriculture / methods
Carbon*
Conservation of Natural Resources
Forests
Soil*
Zea mays

Substances

Soil
Carbon