Assessing aggregate stability of soils under various land use/land cover in a watershed of Mid-Himalayan Landscape

Authors : Abhisek Kumar SİNGH, Suresh Kumar, Justin George Kalambukattu

Pages : 131-143

Doi:10.18393/ejss.541319

View : 41 | Download : 11

Publication Date : 2019-04-01

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Soil aggregate stability is considered as an important indicator of soil quality in the landscapes witnessing land degradation due to soil erosion by water. An increase in anthropogenic activities over the period of time has accelerated soil erosion that necessitated need to assess soil aggregate stability in various land use/land cover in the hilly and mountainous landscape. The study investigated the soil aggregate stability of surface soils in different land use/ land cover classes, hillslope unites as well as in respect to terrain parameters in the watershed. The watershed located in mid- Himalayan region of Tehri Garhwal district, Uttarakhand, India covering an area of 196 ha. The elevation of the watershed ranges from 1200 m to 1927 m. CartoDEM was used to derive terrain parameters i.e., aspect, slope and terrain indices like Terrain Wetness Index insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(TWI); and Stream Power Index insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(SPI); of the watershed. Among the various land use /land cover classes, aggregate stability in crop land was found to be in the range of 0.16 insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(lower hillslope); to 0.28 insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(mid hillslope);, in forest ranged from 0.18 insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(mid hillslope); to 0.28 insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(upper hillslope); and in dense scrub ranged from 0.16 insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(middle slope); to 0.32 insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(upper/lower hillslope);. The aggregate stability was further analyzed in relation with various soil insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(carbon, nitrogen, sand, silt, clay and pH); and terrain insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(slope, elevation, TWI and SPI); variables. Among these variables soil carbon, nitrogen, elevation, TWI and SPI were found to have moderate to high degree of correlation with soil aggregate stability. Prediction model developed by using the various significant soil and terrain parameters were found to be more effective insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(r2 = 0.50); than the models developed using only soil parameters insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(r2= 0.36); or only terrain parameters insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(r2= 0.37);.
Keywords : Land Use land cover, Mid Himalaya, soil aggregate stability, terrain parameters

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