Browsing by Author "Priyanka Soni"

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Changes in soil quality in dry tropics: Impact of reclamation of USAR soil
(Plant Archives, 2019) Beer Bhadra Yadav; Priyanka Soni; Nandita Ghoshal
Among the several problems that limit the economical utilization of land resource in India, the problem of usar soil is of great concern. Usar soil is characterized by impermeability, enormous hardness and irregular presence of unwanted salts that makes the soil unproductive. Application of gypsum followed by thorough irrigation is most common approach used for the reclamation of the usar soil. Present study was undertaken with the objective to analyze the impact of reclamation of usar soil by addition of gypsum on major physical and chemical properties viz., pH, electrical conductivity, water holding capacity, soil organic carbon content and total nitrogen content of the soil collected from usar land, amended usar land and nearby crop land. Level of soil organic carbon and total nitrogen and water holding capacity were found to be highest in crop land followed in decreasing order by amended usar soil and lowest in usar soil that is highest in usar soil and lowest in crop land in dry tropics. Reclamation of usar soil resulted in significant improvement in major physical and chemical properties of soil yet the soil quality was not comparable to that of crop land. © 2019 Plant Archives. All rights reserved.
Climate smart agriculture: A roadmap to sustainable agriculture
(Nova Science Publishers, Inc., 2023) Amrita Kumari; Priyanka Soni; Fahami Zaya; Rahul Kumar; Nidhi Singh; Riya Gupta; Nandita Ghoshal
Agriculture systems globally are predicted to be altered drastically because of future climate change, resulting in not only posing challenges to food security, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions but also increasing uncertainty and vulnerability to various livelihoods. Agricultural systems have become very important not only for their role in achieving food security but also in mitigation of the climate change. Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) has been advocated as a strategy to address the challenges of climate change and food security by sustainably increasing productivity, strengthening resilience, and reducing GHG emissions, thereby achieving national food security and sustainable development goals. CSA has three major objectives viz. adaptation, mitigation, and productivity, which can be achieved by a combination of strategies that have traditionally been applied in the areas of conservation, climate change, environmental studies, ecology and agricultural farms along with financial assistance. Some of the important approaches to achieving the goals of CSA are effective resource management, advancing integrated renewable energy technology in agricultural systems, technical knowledge of farmers, promoting the role of institutions in CSA improvement, crop genetic modification investment, improving land use management, changing crop season, crop relocation, effective pest control, creating a forecasting system, and or using crop modeling techniques. The major challenge of CSA in the present scenario is to bridge the science-policy gap by creating an appropriate combination of strategies that can maximize synergies among the CSA components as well as avoid conflicting policies and negative trade-offs, especially with limited resources and competing food security priorities. Cross-disciplinary and multi-objective approaches in CSA are needed to strengthen the interface of the ecological, social, management, and economic dimensions thereby supporting maximum participation by various stakeholder groups around the world. © 2023 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.
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.
Importance of litter dynamics of economically important trees for sustainable land management in dry tropics
(Cambridge University Press, 2025) Fahami Zaya; Priyanka Soni; Amrita Kumari; Rahul Kumar; Riya Gupta; Nidhi Singh; Nandita Ghoshal
This study elucidates the litter dynamics including decomposition rate both in-situ and ex-situ, the initial acquisition traits (LATs), morphological traits (LMTs) and production rate of leaf litter of four economically important tree species viz. Terminalia arjuna (TA), Tectona grandis (TG), Eucalyptus citriodora (EC) and Psidium guajava (PG) with the major objective of restoration of degraded urban ecosystems in dry tropics. Annual litterfall production rates were observed as: TG > TA > EC > PG. LMTs, that is, specific leaf area followed the trend: TG > TA > PG > EC, whereas leaf mass per area followed the reverse trend. In TA, LATs involving carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and cellulose were highest but C/N and lignin/N ratios were lowest, whereas lignin, polyphenol, C/N and lignin/N ratios were highest in PG. In the leaf litter bag experiment, the decomposition rate followed the trend: TA > TG > EC > PG. In-situ and ex-situ rates of decomposition of all the four leaf litters were found to be similar. LATs especially lignin/N, N and C/N ratios rather than LMTs were found to be a better predictor of the litter decomposition rate. TA plantation having a higher litter decomposition rate, may be recommended for inclusion in the restoration strategies of degraded urban land. © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press.
Restoration of urban degraded soil in the dry tropics: role of multipurpose shrub plants
(Springer, 2025) Amrita Kumari; Priyanka Soni; Fahami Zaya; Rahul Kumar; Riya Gupta; Nandita Ghoshal
Restoration of urban degraded land and long-term maintenance of soil quality of urban green space through plantation is a global challenge. The present investigation was undertaken to study the impact of plantation of two multipurpose shrub plants viz. Hibiscus rosa-sinensis (HR) and Nyctanthes arbor-tristis (NA), cultivated on urban degraded bare land (BL) in the dry tropics on major soil properties. HR was shorter in height (2.2 m) as compared to NA (3.5 m), yet had larger girth (HR,0.13 m; NA,0.11 m) with an elaborate root system and leaf litter having higher C/N (HR, 39; NA, 24) and Lignin/N (HR, 15.83; NA, 11.7) ratios. Among three land uses, at upper (0–10 cm) and lower (10–20 cm) soil depths, the contents of soil organic carbon (SOC), water holding capacity (WHC), bulk density (BD), porosity (PO), and microbial biomass carbon (MBC) level, were highest in HR, whereas total soil nitrogen (TN) and the microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN) were highest in NA and lowest in BL. Through the soil profile, the proportion of macro- and meso-aggregate followed the trend i.e., HR > NA > BL whereas the trend was reversed for micro aggregate proportion. Contents of SOC and soil C stock at the upper soil layer were found to be strongly correlated with WHC, MBC, MBN, PO, soil macro-, and meso-aggregates as also evidenced by the principal component analysis (PCA). Conclusively, it may be suggested that both the multipurpose shrubs, especially HR, significantly improved the soil quality and thus can be used as the potential species for an efficient, resilient, and sustainable management strategy for the restoration of urban degraded land in the dry tropics. © International Society for Tropical Ecology 2025.
Soil organic carbon dynamics in dry tropics: impact of tree plantations on restoration of urban degraded lands
(Springer, 2025) Rahul Kumar; Riya Gupta; Priyanka Soni; Fahami Zaya; Amrita Kumari; Nidhi Singh; Nandita Ghoshal
Restoring urban degraded abandoned land (UDL) is a major global environmental concern. The plantation of different trees on UDL has been advocated as sustainable and efficient restoration strategy, however, their impact on carbon dynamics across the soil profile in dry tropics is least studied. The present study was designed to investigate the soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics in terms of major labile carbon fractions (LCFs) and stable carbon fractions (SCFs) as well as soil carbon indices, i.e., carbon pool management index (CPMI) in response to three economically important tree plantations, viz., Terminalia arjuna (TAP), Eucalyptus citriodora (ECP), and Tectona grandis (TGP) and agroecosystem (AG) grown on urban degraded abandoned grassland (DG) across the soil profile in dry tropics. In upper soil depth (0–30 cm) across all the land use types (LUT), the SOC content and LCFs, viz., permanganate oxidizable carbon (POX-C), water-extractable organic carbon (WEOC) and microbial biomass carbon (MBC), as well as the SCFs, i.e. humic acid (HA) and fulvic acid (FA), were highest in TAP, followed in decreasing order by ECP, TGP, and DG and lowest in AG. In the middle (30–60 cm) and lower depths (60–90 cm), SOC and SCFs showed a similar pattern to that of upper depth. However, MBC and WEOC were higher in TGP than in ECP. SOC content and all carbon fractions decreased with soil depth. LCFs were found to be more sensitive to LUT, while the SCFs to soil depth. Soil carbon indices followed a similar trend to that of SOC content across the LUTs and soil depths. LUT had a greater influence on soil carbon indices than soil depths. Higher CPMI in tree plantations especially TAP, indicated the restoration potential of trees and lower CPMI in AG suggested a stage of degradation. TAP may be recommended for inclusion in the long-term sustainable restoration strategies of DG. © The Author(s) under exclusive licence to Society for Environmental Sustainability 2025.
Variation in soil quality in tropical dryland agroecosystem: Impact of different crop sequences
(John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2024) Priyanka Soni; Fahami Zaya; Rahul Kumar; Amrita Kumari; Riya Gupta; Nidhi Singh; Nandita Ghoshal
Role of crop diversification on productivity has been studied widely but its impact on soil carbon dynamics is least studied. The present study was designed to compare the effects of crop diversification in terms of rice-based mixed crops viz. wheat (RW), chickpea (RC), and flaxseed (RF) and mono-crops viz. pigeonpea (PP) and mustard (MU) on major soil quality including physical, chemical and biological parameters, total crop biomass, and carbon input (CI) in a tropical rainfed dryland agroecosystem. Trend of total crop biomass observed was: pigeonpea > rice > wheat > mustard > flaxseed > chickpea. Across all the crop sequences, CI into the soil through crop residues including stubbles and root biomass varied considerably and followed the trend: PP > RW > RF > RC > MU. Levels of soil organic carbon (SOC), humic acid, fulvic acid, water holding capacity (WHC), macro-aggregate fraction, microbial biomass carbon and phosphorus, enzyme activities of alkaline phosphatase, and β-glucosidase were higher whereas bulk density, meso-, and micro-aggregate fractions were lower in the mixed crops than mono-crops. SOC was positively correlated to all the attributes except bulk density, meso-, and micro-aggregate fractions. Lower values of the various soil quality attributes in PP despite the highest CI into the soil as compared to all the mixed crops might be due to the soil carbon priming effect. This study indicated that the quantity of CI through mixed crops had less impact in sustaining soil fertility and productivity of agroecosystems and suggests that the quality of CI play vital role. Mixed cropping sequence especially rice-wheat was found to be the better option for the dry tropics. © 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.