Physico-chemical properties of soils in cool-temperate forests of the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve in Uttarakhand (India)

The study area is very diverse due to its protectness on one hand and thus there is a vast scope of scientific study on the other hand. The parent material of the study area represents crystalline rocks and comprises of garnetiferous mica, schists, garnet mica and mica quartzite. The soil bulk density varies from 1.14 to 1.91 gm cm-3 under various soil depths ranging from 0 to 15, 15 to 30 and 30 to 45 cm. Whereas, an average water holding capacity ranged from 36.50 ± 0.52 to 67.39 ± 1.79% for 0 to 45 cm soil depth. The soil was found acidic in nature, which ranged from 5.09 ± 0.06 to 6.46 ± 0.05 for 0 to 45 cm depth. With increasing soil depths, the percentage of gravel particles (>4.75 mm) was found in ascending proportion under Abies pindrow, Betula utilis and Quercus semecarpifoliadominated forests. Whereas, this sequence was observed entirely different under other forests. However, fine particles showed the marked variation among other forests. While they were found to be in higher percentage in Pinus wallichiana and A. pindrow dominated forests under 30 to 45 and 0 to 15 cm depths, respectively. The least percentage of fine particles was found in Q. semecarpifolia dominated forest under 30 to 45 cm soil depth. The organic carbon was highest (6.10 ± 0.39%) and lowest (0.52 ± 0.13%) as observed underQ. semecarpifolia and A. pindrow dominated forests for 0to 15 and 30 to 45 cm depths during March to June, 1998 and December to March, 1999 respectively. Whereas, the seasonal variation of C : N : P ratio was highest (118.571:4.286:1) and lowest (8.000:2.682:1) when observed under A. pindrow dominated forest for 0 to 15 and 15 to 30 cm soil depths during June to September and September to December, 1998 respectively.   Key words: Forest, soil, nutrients, N, P, K.