Soil Fertility Under Homegarden Trees and Native Moist Evergreen Forest in South Andaman, India

2009 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. B. Pandey ◽  
Lalita Singh
2003 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy R. Baker ◽  
David F. R. P. Burslem ◽  
Michael D. Swaine

Relating patterns of species abundance to the processes that determine them at local and regional spatial scales is one of the central aims of ecological research. To examine the relationship between distribution and growth in tropical rain forest, seasonal and annual changes in tree diameter of two tree species with contrasting distribution patterns, Celtis mildbraedii and Strombosia glaucescens, were monitored across topographic gradients in moist semi-deciduous and moist evergreen forest in Ghana over 2 years, 1997-9. Concurrent measurements were made of soil water availability, and during 1997/8, of rainfall, nutrient availability and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). The two sites received similar, low, total rainfall during 1997/8, but soil water availability in the dry season at the evergreen site exceeded that at the semi-deciduous forest site. Soil water availability was higher during 1998/9 at both sites. During 1997/8, PAR was similar at the two sites. The evergreen site had soils of lower pH, available P, Mg, Ca and K concentrations than the semi-deciduous forest site. Water availability and the sand content of the soil increased and concentrations of total N and C decreased, from summit to valley positions at both sites. Celtis mildbraedii had significantly faster growth rates than S. glaucescens, and growth of both species was greater at the semi-deciduous than the evergreen forest site during the wet year (1998/9) but not during the dry year (1997/8). Celtis mildbraedii in semi-deciduous forest grew less in valley than summit and slope positions. We conclude that in the absence of a severe dry season, growth is higher in semi-deciduous than evergreen forest, and is related to the higher soil fertility in more seasonal forest. The patterns are consistent with the hypothesis that concentrations of available P and/or cations in the soil limit growth in evergreen forest, while concentrations of N in valley soils limit growth of C. mildbraedii in semi-deciduous forest. There was no evidence that variation in PAR influenced growth rates in these forests. A reduction in growth rate on less fertile soils may be a factor determining the distribution limit of dry forest species, such as C. mildbraedii, in evergreen forest.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 780-787
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Hassan Hayatu ◽  
Abdullahi Mohammed ◽  
Barroon Ahmad Isma’eel ◽  
Sahabi Yusuf Ali

Soil fertility determines a plant's development process that guarantees food sufficiency and the security of lives and properties through bumper harvests. The fertility of soil varies according to regions, thereby determining the type of crops to be planted. However, there is no repository or any source of information about the fertility of the soil in any region in Nigeria especially the Northwest of the country. The only available information is soil samples with their attributes which gives little or no information to the average farmer. This has affected crop yield in all the regions, more particularly the Northwest region, thus resulting in lower food production.  Therefore, this study is aimed at classifying soil data based on their fertility in the Northwest region of Nigeria using R programming. Data were obtained from the department of soil science from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The data contain 400 soil samples containing 13 attributes. The relationship between soil attributes was observed based on the data. K-means clustering algorithm was employed in analyzing soil fertility clusters. Four clusters were identified with cluster 1 having the highest fertility, followed by 2 and the fertility decreases with an increasing number of clusters. The identification of the most fertile clusters will guide farmers on where best to concentrate on when planting their crops in order to improve productivity and crop yield.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-91
Author(s):  
Ekamaida Ekamaida

The soil fertility aspect is characterized by the good biological properties of the soil. One important element of the soil biological properties is the bacterial population present in it. This research was conducted in the laboratory of Microbiology University of Malikussaleh in the May until June 2016. This study aims to determine the number of bacterial populations in soil organic and inorganic so that can be used as an indicator to know the level of soil fertility. Data analysis was done by T-Test that is by comparing the mean of observation parameter to each soil sample. The sampling method used is a composite method, which combines 9 of soil samples taken from 9 sample points on the same plot diagonally both on organic soil and inorganic soil. The results showed the highest bacterial population was found in total organic soil cfu 180500000 and total inorganic soil cfu 62.500.000


2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 84
Author(s):  
Yingjie Hu ◽  
Xiangbin Kong ◽  
Yuzhen Zhang

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 606-620
Author(s):  
Mahtali Sbih ◽  
Zoubeir BENSID ◽  
Zohra BOUNOUARA ◽  
Fouad DJAIZ ◽  
Youcef FERRAG

The goal of fertilization is to meet the nutritional needs of plants by completing the supply of soil nutrients in an economically profitable and environmentally friendly. Achieving on-farm optimum economic crop yields of marketable quality with minimum adverse environmental impact requires close attention to fertilization guide. The recommendations seek to do this by ensuring that the available supply of plant nutrients in soil is judiciously supplemented by additions of nutrients in fertilizers. The objective is that crops must have an adequate supply of nutrients, and many crops show large and very profitable increases in yield from the correct use of fertilizers to supply nutrients. The main objective of this work is to establishing a reference guide of fertilization of vegetable crops and cereal in Algeria. To meet this objective, we have processes in two steps: 1) Establishment of theoretical fertilizer recommendation from international guide of crop fertilization; 2) Validation of these developed theoretical fertilizer recommendation by trials in the fields. Sixteen fertilization guides of vegetable crops from the Canadian provinces (5 guides), USA (10 guides) and countries of northern Europe England (1 guide). Generally, the rating of these recommendation is ranging from poor soil to soil exceedingly rich; however, the numbers of fertility classes are very different. Indeed, Quebec Ontario, Minnesota, Wisconsin New England, Maryland and Kentucky and Florida guides are subdivided into 5 fertility classes, ranging from poor soil to soil exceedingly rich. The recommendation of New Brunswick and Manitoba contain six classes. The recommendation of Michigan, Nova Scotia and England contain 10 and 7 fertility classes respectively. The recommendation fertilizer of New York and New Jersey have 3classes. Unlike the systems of fertilization recommendation mentioned above, the recommendation fertilizer of Pennsylvania is based on continuous models of P, K and contains 34 classes for P and 22 classes K. Then we standardized the P soil analysis with conversion equations (Olsen method) and units of measurement (kg/ha, mg/kg…).Following this procedure we transformed discontinued systems of fertility classes in to continuous models to facilitate comparison between the different fertilization recommendation models in one hand, in other hand to obtain critical value (CV).Finally, we used statistics of the conditional expectation in order to generate the theoretical recommendation fertilization guide of fertilization with 7 fertility classes (VL, L, M, MH, OP, H and VH). The next step was calibrating soil tests against yield responses to applied nutrient in field experiments. A database (not published data) from agriculture and agri-food Canada, were used. Production of pumpkin responded positively and significantly to P or K soil fertility levels, increases being observed with P more often than with K. According to the Cate-Nelson methods, the critical value of Olsen-P in the top 20 cm of soil was about 25 mg/kg: at values of greater than or equal to 25 mg/kg, crops achieved about 80% of their maximal yield in the absence of fertilizer application. The CV of K in soil for this crop was about 140 mg/kg. The CV found was very close to this generated by the theoretical method for recommendation of fertilization guide. Finally, we used the procedure of Cope and Rouse in both sides of the CV in order to make subdivisions of different groups of soil fertility. One calibrates the soil-test value against yield response to tile nutrient to predict fertilizer requirement.


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