Soil Quality Assessment in the Post-flood Scenario of South Central Laterites of Ernakulam District, Kerala, India
![](/public/icon/gor.png)
![](/public/icon/pdf.png)
Keywords:
AEU 9, Flood, Laterite, Minimum dataset, Soil qualityAbstract
Kerala was hit by a terrible flood in 2018, wreaking havoc on the agricultural economy and taking lives. The flood caused great damage to Ernakulam district, especially in Agro-Ecological Unit (AEU) 9 which comprises the South Central Laterites. The AEU 9 represents midland laterite terrain with typical laterite soils. An initial survey was conducted in the flood-affected areas and twelve panchayats were selected. Geo-referenced composite soil samples were collected from different panchayats and were characterized for physical, chemical and biological properties. Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed for 23 soil attributes which resulted in 7 principal components (PCs) and a minimum data set (MDS) was developed using selected indicators i.e., available calcium, available sulphur, available iron, available nitrogen, available zinc, available boron, bulk density, microbial biomass carbon and soil moisture. After the development of MDS, the soil indicators were converted to unit-less scores ranging from 0 to 1 using non-linear scoring function methods. The highest soil quality index was observed in Sreemoolanagaram (0.79) and the lowest in Karumaloor (0.55). Based on the relative soil quality index (RSQI) value different panchayats were categorized into three groups, i.e., poor, medium and good. The RSQI values of less than 50% are categorized as poor, 50-70% as medium and more than 70% as good. No panchayat in the flood-affected area was found to fall in the good category and 50% of the panchayats were found to have poor RSQI.
Downloads
References
Andrews, S.S., Mitchell, J.P., Mancinelli, R., Karlen, D.L., Hartz, T. K., Horwarth, W.R., Pettygrove, G.S., Scow, K.M. and Munk, D.S. (2002). On farm assessment of soil quality in California’s Central Valley. Agronomy Journal 94: 12-23.
Bastida, F., Moreno, J.L., Hernandez, T. and Garcia, C. (2006). Microbiological degradation index of soils in a semiarid climate. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 38: 3463-3473.
Boruah, H.C. and Nath, A.K. (1992). Potassium status in the three major soil orders of Assam. Journal of the Indian Society of Soil Science 40(3): 559-561.
Dakshinamurti, C. and Gupta, R.P. (1968). Practicals in Soil Physics, Division of Agricultural Physics, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India. 67 p.
Doran, J.W. and Parkin, T.B. (1994). Defining and assessing soil quality. In: Defining Soil Quality for a Sustainable Environment, J.W. Doran, D.C. Coleman, D.F. Bezdicek and B.A. Stewart (eds.), Soil Science Society of America Special Publication No. 35., Soil Science Society of America and American Society of Agronomy, Madison, USA. pp 3-21.
Gairola, S., Sharma, C.M., Ghildiyal, S.K., and Suyal, S. (2012). Regeneration dynamics of dominant tree species along an altitudinal gradient in a moist temperate valley slopes of the Garhwal Himalaya. Journal of Forestry Research 23(1): 53-63.
Government of Kerala. (2013). Kerala Soil Health Information System [on-line]. Department of Agriculture, Government of Kerala, Kerala, India. Available: http://www.keralasoilfertility.net/pdf [Accessed 20 August 2020].
Jackson, M.L. (1973). Soil Chemical Analysis, Prentice Hall of India Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, India. 498 p.
Jenkinson, D.S. and Pawlson, D.S. (1976). The effect of biocidal treatments on metabolism in soil. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 8: 209-213.
Karlen, D.L. and Stott, D.E. (1994). A framework for evaluating physical and chemical indicators of soil quality. In: Defining Soil Quality for a Sustainable Environment, J.W. Doran, D.C. Coleman, D.F. Bezdicek and B.A. Stewart (eds.), Soil Science Society of America Special Publication No. 35., Soil Science Society of America and American Society of Agronomy, Madison, USA. pp 53-72.
Page, A.L., Miller, R.H., and Keeney, D.R. (1982). Methods of Soil Analysis, Part 2, Second edition. American Society of Agronomy and Soil Science Society of America, Wisconsin, USA. 1159 p.
Raiesi, F. 2017. A minimum data set and soil quality index to quantify the effect of land use conversion on soil quality and degradation in native rangelands of upland arid and semi-arid regions. Ecological Indicators 75: 307-320.
Sarma, V.A.K., Krishnan, P. and Budhihal, S.L. (1987). Laboratory Methods. NBSS Publication 14, Technical Bulletin, 49. ICAR-National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning, Nagpur, India.
Shamna, R., Joseph, B., Thampatti, K.C.M., Gladis, R. and Rani, T.S. (2020). Soil fertility assessment and GIS mapping of flood affected Agro ecological unit in Kerala. International Journal of Chemical Studies 8(4): 2738-2744.
Sims, J.R. and Johnson, G.V. (1991). Micronutrient soil tests. In: Micronutrient in Agriculture, J.J. Mortvedt, F.R. Cox, L.M. Human, and R.M. Welch (eds), Second edition, Soil Science Society of America, Madison, USA. pp 427-476.
Singh, A.K., Bordoloi, L.J., Kumar, M., Hazarika, S. and Parmar, B. (2014). Land use impact on soil quality in eastern Himalayan region of India. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 186(4): 2013-2024.
Soil Survey Staff. (1998). A Rapidly Executable Point Protocol for Partial Soil Quality Evaluation. National Soil Survey Center, NRCS-USDA, Lincoln, NE, USA.
Tiessen, H., Cuevas E. and Chacon, P. (1994). The role of organic matter in sustaining soil fertility. Nature 371:783-785.
Unni, N. and Sreelatha, A.K. (2021). Soil quality assessment of Pokkali lands (AEU 5) in the post (2018) flood scenario of Kerala. Journal of Tropical Agriculture 59(1): 107-112.
Downloads
Submitted
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Indian Society of Coastal Agricultural Research (ISCAR)
![Creative Commons License](http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-sa/4.0/88x31.png)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
The copyright of the articles published in the Journal of the Indian Society of Coastal Agricultural Research lies with the Indian Society of Coastal Agricultural Research (ISCAR), who has the right to enter into any agreement with any organization in India or abroad engaged in reprography, photocopying, storage and dissemination of information contained in the journal. However, ISCAR supports open access and there is no restriction in the use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that it is not being used for commercial purposes and due credit is given to ISCAR.