NUTRIENT DYNAMICS AND DRY AGGREGATE STABILITY IMPACT ON SOIL CHARACTERISTICS IN THE DRY ENVIRONMENT OF BALOCHISTAN

Abstract

For reducing soil losses and improving soil quality, especially in arid and semiarid regions, soil aggregate stability is a crucial metric, the main purpose of this study was to compare the differences in soil aggregates between two crop cultivations. This study aimed to evaluate the differences in aggregates among two different crop cultivations (maize and mustard). Dry sieving techniques were used to estimate macro and micro aggregate stability. Higher percentages of macro-aggregate were detected in mustard crop cultivation at 56.56% and 52.53% at soil depths of 0-10 and 10-20 cm, respectively. Compared to subsoil and maize crop cultivations, mustard crops had higher mean weight and geometric mean diameter of macro and micro aggregates at surface soil layers, at 3.87 and 1.99, respectively. The formation and stability of macro and micro-aggregates were positively correlated to soil organic matter concentration, total N, available P, and available K. Mustard farming produced more soil organic matter than maize cultivation in the 0-10 cm soil layer. The correlation matrix of numerous soil indicators, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium concentration, and aggregate stability, demonstrated a positive and significant (p<0.05) relationship between mean weight diameter, geometric diameter, and soil organic matter content and a negative association was observed among the micro aggregate. In conclusion, crop cultivation type influenced soil aggregation and size fraction distribution; small fractions of aggregates assorted with fresh organic matter to generate large fractions and higher soil organic matter concentrations were tightly connected with macro-aggregate development. Thus, converting farms to forest and grassland could improve aggregate stability and reduce soil disturbances in dry and semiarid regions with high erosion risk.