Browsing by Author "Chandra Mohan Kumar"

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Impact of conversion of grassland to agroecosystem on soil organic carbon content in dry tropics
(Plant Archives, 2018) Priyanka Soni; Chandra Mohan Kumar; Nandita Ghoshal
The conversion of grassland to agroecosystem leading to loss of soil organic carbon is a major global challenge. Although the tropical soils are known to be vulnerable to the loss of carbon due to land use change yet, limited information is available, especially in the dry tropics. The present study was aimed to analyze the impact of conversion of grassland to agroecosystem in the dry tropics on the content of soil organic carbon, soil carbon stock, bulk density and porosity. This study was conducted in the experimental plots of Department of Botany, Banaras Hindu University. The soil organic carbon content was higher in the grassland (0.81%) than the agroecosystem (0.57 %). Same trend was observed in the case of soil carbon stock and soil porosity whereas the trend of the bulk density was reverse. It may be suggested that to increase the soil organic carbon and soil carbon stock in agroecosystems, management practices involving higher organic matter input to the soil should be recommended so that the agroecosystem would lead not only to long term sustenance of soil fertility and productivity but also sequester atmospheric carbon into the soil of dry tropics.
Impact of tree plantations on the dynamics of soil aggregates in urban degraded lands in the dry tropics
(John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2021) Sunil Singh; Mahesh Kumar Singh; Chandra Mohan Kumar; Priyanka Soni; Nandita Ghoshal
The impact of land-use change in an urban ecosystem on soil aggregate dynamics and soil carbon storage was studied through two annual cycles under five land uses. All the land uses namely: (1) natural mixed vegetation (NV) growing in a protected area; (2) grass fallow (GF); and tree plantations of (3) Cassia siamea (CP); (4) Jatropha curcas (JP); and (5) Tectona grandis (TP) were grown on urban degraded waste lands in a dry tropical region of India. Proportions of soil aggregate fractions, their stability, and soil carbon storage were analyzed at upper (00–15 cm), and lower (15–30 cm) soil depths during the rainy, winter, and summer seasons. Across all the land uses and at both the soil depths, the proportion of macroaggregate was highest during summer and lowest during the rainy season, whereas the reverse trend was observed for mesoaggregate. The annual mean proportion of macroaggregate decreased while meso- and microaggregates increased, with increasing soil depth across all the land uses. At the upper layer, the trends of macroaggregate, aggregate stability, and soil C storage were NV > CP > JP > TP > GF whereas at lower depth, the trend was NV > TP > CP > JP > GF. Across all the land uses in both the depths, soil C storage was strongly and positively correlated with annual mean fraction of soil macroaggregate. All tree plantations improved soil properties considerably as compared to GF at upper soil layer, yet TP reached near NV in these soil properties at lower depth. Soil aggregate fractions may be used as an index of carbon storage capacity in the urban ecosystems. © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Sustainability in agroecosystems: Management strategies involving herbicides and organic inputs
(Nova Science Publishers, Inc., 2018) Mahesh Kumar Singh; Biswadip Mukherjee; Chandra Mohan Kumar; Alka Singh; Nandita Ghoshal
Long-term sustainable management of agroecosystems has now become a global challenge, along with the major objective of maximizing the crop yield. This has led to the switching of research focus, from ‘high input and maximum yields’ to ‘low input and high efficiency sustainable agriculture’. Such approaches have generated renewed and wide interest in ecological aspects of crop production and sustainable agriculture. Organic inputs, rather than the chemical fertilizers are now considered to have the potential to conserve the soil fertility, in terms of a greater soil C storage, the soil microbial biomass, and the crop productivity in the tropical dryland rainfed agroecosystems, especially in the dry tropics of the Indian subcontinent. Weed infestation is a severe problem in agroecosystems, especially in rainfed croplands, as compared to the irrigated systems. The application of herbicide is a common method to control the weeds. Since the continuous and extensive use of herbicides may differently affect the soil organic matter dynamics, therefore, concerns are raised for the long-term sustainability of agroecosystems. The application of high-quality organic resources along with herbicide, not only negates the harmful side effects of these farm-chemicals, but also benefitted the first crop, in terms of improving the soil microbial biomass, the soil carbon sequestration potential, the soil N balance, and the total crop productivity, whereas these benefits were observed in the subsequent crop, when low quality inputs were added along with the herbicides. The combined application of herbicides with the organic inputs of contrasting resource qualities may thus help in, not only sustaining the long-term soil fertility and productivity, but also, in mitigating the increased atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration through its sequestration in agroecosystem soils. © 2018 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.
Variation in soil physico-chemical properties in dry tropics: Effect of land-use change
(Plant Archives, 2017) Chandra Mohan Kumar; Nandita Ghoshal
In the dry tropics, the soil properties especially the soil quality and function affected significantly due to the land-use change. In the present study, the impact of land-use change involving natural forest (NF), degraded forest (DF), Jatropha plantation (JP) and agroecosystem (AG) was analyzed on the potential of soil quality in terms of the concentration of soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), pH, bulk density (BD), porosity (PO) and water holding capacity (WHC). Concentration of SOC, TN, PO and WHC was found to be maximum in NF (0.85 %, 0.132 %, 56.89 and 46.37 %) followed in decreasing order by JP (0.66 %, 0.078 %, 54.33 % and 42.63 %), DF (0.48 %, 0.068 %, 52.49 % and 40.64 %) and minimum in AG (0.34 %, 0.063 %, 47.87 % and 38.34 %). The plantation of Jatropha curcas on a patch of DF for 12 years improves the soil physico-chemical properties over DF and AG. It can be suggested that the JP on degraded land may be crucial strategy for the restoration of degraded land by improving soil quality and function in dry tropics.