Physical and chemical

properties of forest soil

in India and Kerala

Shibu c
2021-27-011
Ph.D forestry
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• Definition- “Soil as a natural body, component of mineral and organic
constituents having a definite genesis and a distinct nature of its own”
(Dokuchaev,1900).
• Concept of forest soil- any soil that has developed under the influence of a
forest cover or soils that presently support a forest cover.
• As per the raychandhuri (1963) soil classification, forest soil comes under the
23rd group.
• Indian forest soil area 3600kms
• Forest soil formed under the two condition

• Under acidic conditions with the presence of acidic humus and low base
status
• Under slightly acidic or natural conditions with high base status which
favours the formation of brown earth
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• General properties of forest soils in different parts of India (Negi 2000)
• North east India-
• Relatively high OM content and proportion of nitrogen.
• Fine texture
• Resemble brown earths
• High base exchange capacity due to high OM
• Himalaya
• High OM
• Ph-5.5 to 6.5
• Kerala-
• Grey brown/greyish red horizon below a thick layer of black decomposed OM
• Tamil Nadu-
• High OM and other nutrients

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 Physical Properties of Forest Soils
• Physical properties of forest soils develop under natural
conditions by the influence of permanent vegetation over a
long period of time.
• These soils may be almost permanent properties unless
modified by harvesting operations, shifting cultivation, and
forest fires.
• Important physical properties of forest soils include texture,
structure, porosity, density, aeration, temperature, water
retention, and movement
• Soil physical properties are largely controlled by the size,
distribution, and arrangement of soil particles.
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 1. Colour
• Colour of the soil is the visual sensation produced by the soil due to
the reflection of light. Soil colour is imparted mainly by minerals and
organic matter.
• Soil colour is determined by using Munsell colour chart. This chart
consists of 175 systematically arranged colour chips.
• Munsell notations consist of three variables viz., hue, value and
chroma.
• Hue refers to the dominant spectral colour.
• Value refers to the relative lightness or strongness of colour.
• Chroma refers the relative purity or strength of the spectral colour.

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 2. Soil Particles
• Soils are composed of variously sized particles. There are two types of particles—
primary particles and secondary particles.
• Individual discrete particles are called
primary particles and their aggregates are
known as secondary particles.

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 3. Soil texture
• Soil texture refers to the degree of fineness or coarseness created by the close
packing of variously sized particles together in soil.
• Determined by the relative proportion of sand, silt, and clay.
• 12 textural classes have been identified.

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 4. Soil Structure
• The arrangement of soil particles
into units of different sizes and
shapes.
• These units are called peds or
aggregates, and the process is
called aggregation.
• There are six types of soil structure
1. Spheroidal (granular and crumb)
2. Blocky
3. Platy
4. Prismatic
5. Columnar
6. Single grained
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• Soil structure regulates pore size, number of pores, distribution of pores
and total porosity.
• which affects water flow, erosion potential, microbial and faunal
behaviour, and organic matter dynamics.
• Retention and movement of soil water including infiltration,
permeability, percolation, drainage, leaching, etc. all depend on soil
structure.
5. Density, Porosity, and Compaction
• Density is defined as the mass per unit volume.
• There are two kinds of soil density—bulk density and particle density.
• Bulk density is estimated by dividing the mass (dry weight, usually after
oven drying at 105 °C) by the total volume of soil (volume of solid +
volume of pores).
• Particle density is estimated by dividing mass by the volume of the
solids. 10
• Bulk density tends to increase with depth primarily due to the lack of
organic matter and aggregation.
• Bulk density and particle density values are used to estimate the
porosity

• Porosity: spaces in soil that are not occupied by solids are called pores
and the total volume of pores is the porosity.
• Porosity of a soil is an index of its state of compaction
• Soil compaction is the physical consolidation of the soil by an applied
force that destroys soil structure.
• Soil compaction affects seed germination and seedling emergence of
forest trees and natural regeneration in forests.

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• Bulk density in surface soils in oak and pine forests of Indian Central
Himalaya was found to range between 1.24 and 1.94 Mg m−3 (Jina et
al., 2011)
• Zyuz (1968) reported abundant pine roots in soils of strength less than
1,700 kPa. Root penetration was restricted above 2,500 kPa.
• Himalayan temperate forest- BD ranged from 0.79 gm/cm3 and
1.29 gm/cm3, Values of soil porosity ranged from 51.25 and 70.26
• Bulk density of soil decrease with increasing elevation.
• low bulk density in soil indicates the occurrence of higher organic
matter content, good granulation, high infiltration and good aeration
conversely

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 6. Water Holding Capacity(WHC)
• Water is present in soils in different forms.
• WHC is the amount of water that a given
soil can hold for crop use
• Soil texture and organic matter are the key
components that determine soil water Adhesion
Cohesion
(Strong bond)
holding capacity. (Weak bond)

7. Soil Temperature
• Regulates physical, chemical, and biological processes of the soil, and the
physiological processes of soil organisms and forest plants.
• Regulates microbial transformations of nitrogen and sulfur and other nutrients.
• controls the decomposition of organic matter and formation of humus, as well as root
growth, activity, and respiration.
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Chemical Properties
•1. Soil acidity
• Expressed as a pH value.
• Determines the type and quality of the forest.
• Varies with seasonal changes: Summer period: Lowest pH, Winter period : Highest pH
• Organic acids produced from the decomposition of forest litter

•Release of bases from the freshly fallen leaves Vegetation effects

• Soil supporting conifers is more acidic than hardwood species.
• Forest species grow best in acid media.
• Availability of micronutrients increases with soil acidity.

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2. Electrical conductivity: Electrical conductivity of the soil is a measure of
•soluble salt presence in soil. Soil showing high EC has higher soluble salt in it
and vice versa.
Cation exchange capacity:-It refers to the movement of ions between
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the exchangeable site and soil solution. This is a reversible phenomenon
which is essential for the supply of nutrients to the plants. CEC is the
amount of exchangeable cation present in the unit weight of dry soil.
4.Anion exchange capacity:- Amount of exchangeable anion present in
the unit weight of dry soil
5.Base saturation:- Base saturation designated the proportion of basic
cation to the total cation exchange capacity.

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Forest classification of India by Reddy et al, (2015)

NO FOREST TYPES of INDIA

1 Himalayan dry temperate forest
2 Moist alpine scrub
3 Himalayan moist temperate forest
4 Subtropical pine forest
5 Tropical dry scrub
6 Tropical dry deciduous
7 Tropical moist deciduous forest
8 Subalpine forest
9 Mountain wet temperate forest
10 Littoral and swamp forest (mangrove)
11 Tropical thorn forest
12 Subtropical broadleaved hill forest
13 Grassland
14 Tropical semi-evergreen
15 Savanna
16 Tropical dry evergreen forest
17 Tropical wet evergreen forest
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(Reddy et al., 2015)
 Soil properties of different forests types in
India

Mountain forests
1. Himalayan dry temperate forest
2. Himalayan moist temperate forest
3. Moist alpine
4. Subtropical pine forest
5. Subalpine forest
6. Mountain wet temperate forest

Soils of the boreal forest are predominantly classed as Spodosols (podzols) and Inceptisols, with Histosol
soils found in bogs.

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• Himalayan forest/Himalayan temperate forest-
• Values of WHC ranged from 54.74% and 99.91%.
• WCH has a positive correlation with altitude
• The water holding capacity increases with an increase in the clay
content.
• Pine forest- Soil Temperature is a limiting factor for root growth.
• Root growth of pine species begins when soil temperature exceeds
5°C, accelerates rapidly at soil temperatures above 10°C, reaches a
maximum rate at 20 °C, and decreases thereafter (Lopushinsky and
Max, 1990).

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• Soils of Himalayan temperate belong to the members of fine sandy
loam.
1. The combined effects of seasons on the amount of sand
and silt at different altitudes differed significantly.

2. The interaction of seasons at different altitudes does not

differ significantly in effects with respect to clay %.

• Silt, clay and sand which reduced in the order of rainy >
summer > winter seasons
• Altitude and seasons played an important role in the
distribution of the physical properties of soil.
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• Study area central Himalaya- Banj-oak forest, Chir-pine forest and Mixed oak-pine
forest.
• Soils of central Himalayas belong to the members of the sandy loam and loamy sand
category.
• Sand %e ranged from 70 to 80
• Minimum silt % was 11
• Minimum clay % was 9
• Indian Himalayan region is dominated by sandy loam to clay loam (Singh et al., 2018)
• soil texture sub-alpine region in the eastern Himalayas- is sandy loam

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6. Mountain wet temperate forest
Found in the higher hilly areas of Kerala and Tamil
Nadu, Eastern Himalayas to the east of 88°E longitude
including the hills of Assam, West Bengal, Sikkim
Species: Indian chestnut, Deodar, Blue pine, Birch, Oak.
• Bulk density 1.3 Mg/m3
• Sand 60%
• Silt 23%
• Clay 17%
• EC 0.1
• Ph 5.7
• CEC 6.5 C mol/kg soil
Study area
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(Saravanakumar et al., 2010)
 7. Tropical dry scrub and 8. Tropical thorn forest
• found in the semi-arid areas of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar
Pradesh and Haryana.
• Sandy loam and
• pH ranged from slightly acidic (UD) to highly basic (HD).
• Bulk density below 1.8 Mg/cm³
• Organic content below 1%

UF Undisturbed forest site

SRMP Secondary forest regenerating inside the abandoned mining pits
SRMS Secondary forest regenerating on mine spoils of Sanctuary
HD Highly Disturbed forest (Sharma and Chaudhry, 2018)
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9. Tropical dry deciduous
• Water holding capacity 46.6
• Soil moisture 22.6%
• Bulk density 1 Mg/cm³
• Soil texture
• Sand 82.3%
• Silt 14.7%
• Clay 2.9 %
• Ph 6.6
• Carbon 2.32%
• Nitrogen 0.21%
Study area
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Sharma and Raghubanshi 2009
10. Tropical moist deciduous forest
• Soil temperature ranged from 13.54 to 36.88C (Behera et al.,
2021)
• Soil pH ranged from 4.28 to 6.53
• Electrical conductivity (EC) 21–74 µS
• Bulk density (BD) 1.25 g/cm3 (Mohanta et al., 2020)
• Alluvial
• Total carbon content 1.24
• Total nitrogen content 0.17
• Water absorption capacity 91%
• Soil moisture content 22%
• Soil porosity 0.5%
• Soil temperature 20 (Bajpai et al., 2020) Study area by Bajpai et al., (2020)

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11. Littoral and swamp forest
(mangrove)

Hossain, and Nuruddin,

25 2016
 Hossain, and Nuruddin, 2016
• Soil pH 8.6–10.0
• Salinity ranging from 2% to 90%
• Soil pH varied from 7.38 to 8.13 at different
soil depths (Sing, 2020)

Study area 26
(Sing, 2020)
 12. Subtropical broadleaved hill
forest
• The texture of soils varies from loamy to sandy loam
(Barbhuyan et al., 2021)
• Bulk density ranged from 0.95 to 1.26 g cm-3
• porosity varied from 46.53 to 64.02%.
• The soil was acidic in nature (Pao and upadhaya, 2017:
Mishra et al., 2003)
• poor in nutrients
• Dark brown to dark reddish brown in colour
• Soil temperature 21-27°C
• Soil moisture content 25%
• Soil organic content above 1.8% (Mylliemngap et al.,
2016).
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(Mishra and Laloo, 2006)
13. Grasslands

Study area

(Padbhushan et al., 2020)

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BD: bulk density, SOC: soil organic carbon, CEC: cation exchange (Padbhushan et al., 2020) 29
capacity, TC: total carbon.
(Padbhushan et al., 2020)
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 Sub-tropical grassland
ecosystems
• Soil temperature ranged from 15 to 29.5ºC
• Clayey loam texture
• Acidic nature

Devi et al., 2014 31

14. Tropical forest grassland and
savanna

Singh et al., 2010

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15. Tropical semi-evergreen

Study area: Tropical semi-

evergreen forests of Eastern
Himalaya
(Mishra et al 2017)
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(Mishra et al 2017) 34
16. Tropical dry evergreen
forest

Study area : Coromandel

coast, south India

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17. Tropical wet evergreen forest

Study area: Dibrugarh Forest

Division of Assam

Barbhuiya et al., 2012

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Forest soil properties of Kerala
• FOREST TYPES
• SHOLA
• EVERGREEN
• MOIST DECIDUOUS
• SCRUB JUNGLE
• GRASSLAND

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(Vishnu et al., 2017)
• pH was found to be acidic in different forest types and ranged from
5.1 (evergreen forest) to 6.5 (scrub jungle).
• Organic carbon per cent ranged from 1.75 (evergreen and moist
deciduous forests) to 5.7 (shola forests and grasslands)
• The combined effect of low temperature and high rainfall in shola
forests and grasslands restrict biochemical decomposition of organic
residues in these soils and thus help maintain high organic carbon
percentage, which in turn becomes responsible for the high cation
exchange capacity and base saturation of these soils.

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(Vishnu et al., 2017)
• Available nitrogen in shola forests 307
kg/ha
• In grassland 132kg/ha
• Potassium high in grasslands 465kg/ha
• No difference in Phosphorus content
Primary and secondary soil nutrient status

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(Vishnu et al., 2017)
Thank you

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