IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/envsyd/v29y2009i3d10.1007_s10669-008-9196-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fauna-associated changes in soil biochemical properties beneath isolated trees in a desert pastureland of India and their importance in soil restoration

Author

Listed:
  • G. Tripathi

    (Jai Narayan Vyas University)

  • S. Ram

    (Jai Narayan Vyas University)

  • B. M. Sharma

    (Jai Narayan Vyas University)

  • G. Singh

    (Arid Forest Research Institute)

Abstract

Biodiversity conservation and management of natural resources are the best options to restore and increase productivity of degrading pastureland in dry areas. Hence, arthropod abundance, organic matter, respiration, and dehydrogenase activity were measured in canopy zone soil of Prosopis cineraria (PC), Acacia nilotica (AN), Zizyphus nummularia (ZN), Capparis decidua (CD), and Acacia senegal (AS) associated with grasses with a view to establish interrelation for productivity enhancement of pastureland. Pure grass bock outside tree canopy was control plot. Acari, Myriapoda, Coleoptera, Isoptera, Collembola, and other soil arthropods were the major soil faunal groups. Integration of tree in pastureland enhanced population of soil arthropod by 9–65-fold in May 2001 and 8–13-fold in August/September as compared with control. The trends of changes in soil organic matter (SOM), soil respiration (SR), and dehydrogenase activity (DHA) were similar to the changes in soil arthropod population, indicating the role of soil fauna in facilitating biochemical processes and soil fertility. Two, eight, and nine times greater SOM, SR, and DHA, respectively, in silvipastoral system than the values in control suggest the beneficial effects of trees on improvement in biochemical processes and thus biodiversity in pastureland, as supported by negative values of relative tree effects (RTE). Microbial activities were highest in the ZN system, which had highest abundance of soil arthropods. In the other systems, CD and AS systems showed greater soil arthropod abundance and biological activities than with the PC and AN systems. Therefore, Z. nummularia-, C. decidua-, and A. senegal-based silvipastoral systems and related soil fauna may be promoted for enhancement of biological activity and productivity of pastureland in desert. The strategy may be adopted for developing a sustainable pedoecosystem in a region of the world where agriculture is notoriously difficult.

Suggested Citation

  • G. Tripathi & S. Ram & B. M. Sharma & G. Singh, 2009. "Fauna-associated changes in soil biochemical properties beneath isolated trees in a desert pastureland of India and their importance in soil restoration," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 318-329, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:envsyd:v:29:y:2009:i:3:d:10.1007_s10669-008-9196-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s10669-008-9196-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10669-008-9196-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10669-008-9196-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    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:spr:envsyd:v:29:y:2009:i:3:d:10.1007_s10669-008-9196-y. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.