PHYSICO-CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF SOIL IN RELATION TO SPECIES COMPOSITION AND DIVERSITY OF SUBTROPICAL

The goal of this paper is to look at the physico-chemical properties of soils in connection to vegetational parameters in Western Himalayan subtropical and temperate forest stands. A total of four forest stands with elevations ranging from 300 to 2250 m m.s.l. were studied for various vegetational and physico-chemical parameters. The study found that soil moisture, water holding capacity (WHC), and total nitrogen were highest in mixed oak forest stands (26.33 percent, 63.52 percent, and 0.41 percent, respectively) and lowest in sal forest stands (19.09 percent, 46.28 percent, and 0.14 percent, respectively). Soil organic carbon (SOC) was highest (4.25 percent) in banj-oak forest and lowest (1.23 percent) in sal forest stands. In comparison to subtropical sal and chir-pine forest stands, temperate oak forests have a greater diversity of species, as well as physical and chemical qualities of soil. This finding suggests that the dynamics of soil nutrients are linked to the diversity and richness of forest species.

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