TITLE:
Soil Properties of a Tropical Savannah in the Eastern Ghats of India
AUTHORS:
Rachna Chandra, Narayanan Ganesan, Belasenti Anjan Kumar Prusty, Parapurath Abdul Azeez
KEYWORDS:
Araku; Bauxite; Nutrients; Physico-Chemical Properties
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Soil Science,
Vol.2 No.4,
December
31,
2012
ABSTRACT: As an outcome of globalization and
liberalization of economic policies, exploration for and mining of minerals
have become one of the recent lucrative trades in India. Due to stringent environment
legislations, reclamation and reforestation of the mined out sites have become
obligatory. Information on distribution of nutrients before and after mining
provides valuable insights
while developing and executing the strategy for reclamation and revegetation of
the mined out sites. Successful mine reclamation plan chiefly requires
information on the soil characteristics in the area during its natural state.
With this aim, investigations into spatial and temporal variations in soil
nutrients and other physico-chemical parameters among three proposed bauxite mine locations near Araku
valley, India were conducted. Soil samples were collected every three months
for two years. At each location, samples from three sites in triplicates from
four successive layers (0 - 5 cm, 5 - 10 cm, 10 - 15 cm and 15 - 20 cm depth) were collected. Concentrations
of Total Organic Carbon (TOC), Total Nitrogen (TN), Total Available Phosphorous
(TAP), Total Available Sulphur (TAS), C:N, C:P, and C:S decreased along the
soil layers, while N:P increased. All the parameters studied varied
significantly among months (GLM-ANOVA, P 0.05). Principal Component Analysis
(PCA) done on the soil physico-chemical dataset showed first 5 components
(Eigen Value > 1) explaining 87.3% of the total
variance. Of these, the first component accounted for 21.0% and the second for
20.1% of the total variance. The principal components represented C:N/Soil N,
C:P/Soil P/N:P, EC, Soil S/C:S and Soil C axes, respectively.