Comparing Soil Chemical and Biological Properties of Salt Affected Soils under Different Land Use Practices in Hungary and India

Abstract

This study was conducted with the aim to assess the effect of land use on chemical properties (organic carbon; pH; electrical conductivity; available P, K, Ca, Mg, Na), microbiological properties (basal soil respiration, microbial biomass carbon, dehydrogenase activity and phosphatase activity), and physical property (moisture content) of salt-affected soils developed under different geographical locations and climate i.e. Hungary and India. In Hungary, soil samples were taken from two different soil types with different land uses such as arable land (Solonetz—HSNA) and pasture land (Solonetz—HSNP; Solonchak—HSCP) while in India samples were collected from Solonetz soil of different land uses, namely, arable (ISNA), pasture (ISNP) and bare land (ISNB). Based on chemical properties and moisture content, one-way ANOSIM (Analysis of similarities) proved that all six sites were statistically different from each other. The results of PCA showed that soil samples from Hungary and India must be separated unambiguously from each other; furthermore the Hungarian ones differing in soil type and land use could be also differentiated. Cluster analysis (Bray-Curtis) gave similar results for microbiological properties in Hungarian sites while in Indian sites, three land use practices were grouped into two clusters where the pasture land was grouped to both arable land and bare land. CCA results revealed that more than 86% of variation in microbiological properties were explained by the environmental factors.