Effects of Land Use on the Soil Organic Carbon Storage Potentiality and Edaphic Factors in Tripura, Northeast India

The regulatory functions of soil are getting attention among the scientists and Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) is an important indicator of soil health. The impact of differential use of land on SOC and other edaphic properties were analysed in three important Land use land cover (LULC) system of Tripura, northeast India. Soil cores were divided into four depth profiles (0 10, 10 30, 30 50 and 50 100 cm) to observe the changes of edaphic properties into the soil depth gradient. Our results suggest that SOC in the top profile of Managed Plantation (MP) and Jhum Fellow (JF) was 51.68% and 48.55%, less than Natural Forest (NF). From 0 10 to 10 30 cm soil depth, 43.3%, 8.4% and 39.4% decrease in NF MP and JF found. Total stock of SOC (Mg C·ha−1) was found highest in JF (121.87), followed by NF (117.12) and MP (85.34). In top profile, conversion of NF into MP and NF into JF led to 39% and 11% decrease in SOC. The significant variation in SOC stock was found among different LULC under this study (F2,12 = 16.94, P ≤ 0.001). In 0 10 cm soil depth, maximum value of bulk density (gm∙cm−3) was found in MP (1.39) followed by JF (1.27) and NF (1.23). In top profile, significant variation was found among LULC (p < 0.001). Soil pH and moisture content significantly varied (p < 0.05) in 0 10, 10 30 and 50 100 cm soil depth. In contrast to that significant change in soil temperature was found at 30 50 cm (p < 0.001) and 50 100 cm (p < 0.001). It was observed that JF had highest overall SOC stock than NF and MP. Conversion of NF into MP and JF results significant loss of SOC at 0 10 and 10 30 cm depth profile. We also found that NF conversion had significant impact on the change in the soil C pool.