IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i8p3490-d350108.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Soil Quality and Its Potential Indicators under Different Land Use Systems in the Shivaliks of Indian Punjab

Author

Listed:
  • Bharat Bhushan Vashisht

    (Department of Soil Science, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab 141004, India)

  • Bijesh Maharjan

    (Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Panhandle Research and Extension Center (PREC), Scottsbluff, NE 69361, USA)

  • Sandeep Sharma

    (Department of Soil Science, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab 141004, India)

  • Samanpreet Kaur

    (Department of Soil and Water Engineering, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab 141004, India)

Abstract

The present study assessed the overall state of the soil based on the most sensitive soil attributes under different land uses—i.e., rainfed agriculture, mixed forest, afforestation and non-arable lands—in the lower Shivaliks of Indian Punjab. The soil parameters—i.e., erosion ratio, bulk density and water retention characteristics—and fertility parameters were integrated under different land uses to identify potential soil quality indicators.The overall state of the soil, based on a weighted average of primary soil functions under different land uses through fuzzy modeling, was deemed best for agricultural land use (0.515), followed by forests (0.465) and non-arable lands (0.456), and deemed worst under afforestation (0.428). Among the different land use systems, principal component analysis (PCA) clearly separated the agriculture and forest samples from afforestation and non-arable lands samples. The contribution of potential indicators such as erosion ratio (ER), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) toward the soil quality index (SQI) was substantial. The order of contribution of the selected indicators to the SQI was 53.5%, 34.3% and 19.9% for ER, P and K, respectively. These indicators are most influential for studying real time soil health and ecological processes in the future, under various land use systems in degraded agroecosystems like the Shivaliks.

Suggested Citation

  • Bharat Bhushan Vashisht & Bijesh Maharjan & Sandeep Sharma & Samanpreet Kaur, 2020. "Soil Quality and Its Potential Indicators under Different Land Use Systems in the Shivaliks of Indian Punjab," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-13, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:8:p:3490-:d:350108
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/8/3490/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/8/3490/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Middleton, H. E., 1930. "Properties of Soils Which Influence Soil Erosion," Technical Bulletins 159441, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ustaoglu, E. & Sisman, S. & Aydınoglu, A.C., 2021. "Determining agricultural suitable land in peri-urban geography using GIS and Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) techniques," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 455(C).
    2. Tavjot Kaur & Simerpreet Kaur Sehgal & Satnam Singh & Sandeep Sharma & Salwinder Singh Dhaliwal & Vivek Sharma, 2021. "Assessment of Seasonal Variability in Soil Nutrients and Its Impact on Soil Quality under Different Land Use Systems of Lower Shiwalik Foothills of Himalaya, India," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-16, January.
    3. Kirti Saurabh & Rakesh Kumar & Janki Sharan Mishra & Anil Kumar Singh & Surajit Mondal & Ram Swaroop Meena & Jaipal Singh Choudhary & Ashis Kumar Biswas & Manoj Kumar & Himadri Shekhar Roy & Nongmaith, 2022. "Sustainable Intensification of Rice Fallows with Oilseeds and Pulses: Effects on Soil Aggregation, Organic Carbon Dynamics, and Crop Productivity in Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-19, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Romanus Udegbunam Ayadiuno & Dominic Chukwuka Ndulue & Chinemelu Cosmas Ndichie & Arinze Tagbo Mozie & Philip O. Phil-Eze & Anthony Chukwuemeka Onyekwelu, 2022. "Geospatial Analysis of Soil Erosion Susceptibility and Causative Factors in Anambra State, South East, Nigeria," Scientific Review, Academic Research Publishing Group, vol. 8(1), pages 5-32, 01-2022.
    2. Jones Anschau Xavier de Oliveira & Frederico Terra de Almeida & Adilson Pacheco de Souza & Rhavel Salviano Dias Paulista & Cornélio Alberto Zolin & Aaron Kinyu Hoshide, 2024. "Determination of Soil Erodibility by Different Methodologies in the Renato and Caiabi River Sub-Basins in Brazil," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-18, September.
    3. Valter S. Marques & Marcos B. Ceddia & Mauro A. H. Antunes & Daniel F. Carvalho & Jamil A. A. Anache & Dulce B. B. Rodrigues & Paulo Tarso S. Oliveira, 2019. "USLE K-Factor Method Selection for a Tropical Catchment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-17, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:8:p:3490-:d:350108. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.