Assessment of Soil Organic Carbon Stock Under Tea Agroforestry System in Barak Valley, North East India

Rinkumoni Kalita, Ashesh kumar Das, Arun Jyoti Nath

Abstract


Quantification of soil organic carbon (SOC) stock can be considered as effective evaluation of soil quality and carbon dynamics in tropical agroforestry systems (AFS). We investigated distribution of soil organic carbon (SOC) stock in different soil layers up to 1 m depth under an age sequence of tea AFS in Barak Valley, North East India. SOC stock in the system ranged from 65.14 to 141.49 Mg C ha-1with a mean of 101.39 Mg C ha-1. About 46% of estimated SOC was confined to 0-30 cm layer whereas 65% of SOC occurred in the 0-50 cm soil layer. The next soil layer (50-100 cm) accounted for about 36% of estimated SOC. SOC decreased with increasing depth in all the plantations and was negatively related with bulk density (BD). Healthy management of tea plantations to higher age can be considered a beneficial approach to store sizable amount of SOC providing environmental services coupled with economic gain.

Keywords


Carbon Stock; Soil Texture; Walkley and Black Method

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