Variation of Physico-Chemical Properties among Different Soil Orders under Different Land Use Systems of the Majha Region in North-Western India

The impact of different soil orders and land use systems on the distribution physico-chemical properties is most critical matter to address in order maintain sustainable agricultural production. Hence, present investigation was carried out study variation characteristics diverse (LUSs), i.e., agriculture, horticulture, forestry, under major (entisol, inceptisol, alfisol) Majha region Punjab. A total 225 depth-wise (at 0–20 cm, 20–40 40–60 60–80 cm 80–100 cm) samples were collected from three land-use orders. mean values ranged 6.80–7.50, 7.64–8.34 6.94–7.87 for pH; 0.13–0.42, 0.19–0.54 0.19–0.46 dS m−1 EC; 0.14–0.99, 0.21–0.69 0.15–0.72% OC; 0.75–2.07, 1.07–3.32 0.93–2.29% CaCO3; 7.77–41.84, 10.56–40.23 7.24–39.51 kg ha−1 P; 98.37–334.68, 94.51–230.18 93.01–367.39 K uses entisols, inceptisols alfisols, respectively. Soil parameters including pH, CaCO3, phosphorus (P) differed significantly among orders; however, EC, organic carbon (OC) available potassium (K) did not. system (ALUS) had highest CaCO3 values. OC content found entisols forest (FLUS), followed by horticultural (HLUS). soil-available phosphorous FLUS inceptisols, while amounts alfisols ALUS FLUS, Thus, LUSs each highly variable does not follow any particular trend. In general, such as OC, P, decreased with an increase depth, pH increased depth all There a positive correlation between well P soils investigated. are negatively correlated soil. principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that parameters, which influence availability other systems. Therefore, it suggested play important role results will help students, researchers, management staff managing maintaining fertility productivity alluvial North-western India.