Impact of seasonal variations on physico-chemical and exchangeable cations of forest soil in Doon Valley, Uttarakhand, India

The aim was to investigate the role of seasonal changes of physico-chemical parameters in forest soil of Doon Valley of Uttarakhand, India. The samples were collected from four different environmental conditions viz. urbanized area, industrial area, urbanization with dense forest area, and wetland area during summer, monsoon, and winter seasons from two different depths of 0–15 cm and 15–30 cm, respectively. The soil parameters were analyzed such as pH, total nitrogen, total phosphorous, total hydrogen, total carbon, organic carbon, inorganic carbon, exchangeable cations such as sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. The result revealed that site-I and IV of both depths were found to be of good quality due to less human interference, low urbanization effect, and covered by the forest area whereas site-II and III were confirmed of poor quality. Pearson’s correlation coefficient analysis suggest soils at both depths has following relation: total carbon and nitrogen (r = 0.90), magnesium and potassium (r = 0.74), Ca with N, P, C, OC, Na, K, Mg, organic carbon and total phosphorous (r = 0.85), organic carbon and nitrogen (r = 0.91). Hence, the soil fertility is good and very important for plant growth and development in agriculture process for sustainable development