Study on Soil Phosphatase Activity in Reference to Deforestation in the Shiwalik Hills of Jammu Division of Jammu and Kashmir

Author: Rohit Kumar Arora, Sarabdeep Kaur, Lalit Upadhyay* and Vikas Sharma

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Abstract

Deforestation is a major problem in the hilly regions, which effect the soil quality and activity. To assess the effect of deforestation, a study was conducted in Batote, Bhaderwah, Bani, Basholi, Poonch and Samba (Shiwalik hills) areas of Jammu division of Jammu and Kashmir (India) and sites of deforestation and adjacent forest area were identified. Composite surface soil samples from all the six locations were collected. Deforested sites were selected along with adjacent forest sites. Ten soil samples from each area at four depths were taken. Phosphatase activity was determined by Tabatabai and Bremner (1969) method. It is based on colorimetric determination of the p-nitro phenol released by phosphatase activity when the incubation of soil is done with p-nitro phenyl phosphate disodium salt. Results of the study showed that there was significant difference in the amount of Acid phosphatase and alkaline phosphatase in the forest and deforested areas. With moving from hills to plain ar

Keywords

Acid phosphatase, Alkaline phosphatase, Deforestation, Shiwalik hills.

Conclusion

From the present study it may be concluded that land use changes and management practices in the forest areas influence the soil microbial parameters and enzyme activities in semiarid regions. Deforestation reduces the SOM, which limits the soil microbial activity thereby reducing SMBP, acid and alkaline phosphatase content. An increased amount of substratum quantity and quality in the forest land enhances the SOM content which increases high microbial activities. The microbial activity further affected by variation in plant species composition, SM content, and litter quality within the land use. Similar results were recorded by Singh et al. (2018), Tiwari et al. (2019) and Singha et al. (2020) in their study regarding the effect of land use change on soil.

References

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How to cite this article

Arora, R. K.; Kaur, S.; Upadhyay, L. and Sharma, V. (2022). Study on Soil Phosphatase Activity in Reference to Deforestation in the Shiwalik Hills of Jammu Division of Jammu and Kashmir. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 14(1): 08-11.