Soil properties of evergreen and deciduous forests of the Southern Western Ghats, India

Soil properties of evergreen and deciduous forests of the Southern Western Ghats, India This project contains physical and chemical properties of soil collected from Anamalai Tiger Reserve of the Southern Western Ghats for a study investigating the factors influencing the distribution of evergreen-deciduous mosaics. Description of field and lab methods Soil collection: Soil samples were collected from 58 plots spread across evergreen and deciduous forests, using soil core sampler. The diameter of the core sampler was measured before soil collection. All soil samples were collected from 10 cm depth after removing all the leaf litter from the ground. From each plot, one soil column was collected for bulk density estimation and 10 soil columns were collected for analysis of chemical properties. Bulk density estimation: For each sample, all the roots above 0.5 mm diameter were separated from the soil and the length and diameter of the roots were recorded. The volume of the roots were calculated. The entire sample was dried in the oven at 120°C, for 2 hours.After drying, the soil sample was sieved with a 2mm mesh sieve to separate the stones and clumped soil. The dry mass of soil and stones for each sample was recorded. The volume of the stones from each sample was measured separately using water displacement method. The total volume of soil was calculated by deducting the volume of roots and stones from volume of the soil core sampler. Bulk density was calculated as mass of the dried soil sample by the total volume of the soil. Chemical Properties: We estimated fifteen soil chemical properties for all soil samples collected. The following parameters were analyzed by Zuari Farmhubs Laboratory: pH, electrical conductivity (E.C.) at 25°C, organic carbon (O.C.), available phosphorus (P₂O₅), available potassium (K₂O), available calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), sulfur (S), boron (B), zinc (Zn), iron (Fe), copper (Cu), and manganese (Mn). Total carbon and nitrogen were estimated using LECO elemental analyzer. More details about the data can be obtained from Bindu K. and Rohit Naniwadekar from the Nature Conservation Foundation (www.ncf-india.org).