Evaluating soil fertility and carbon sequestration potential in different land use ecosystem in northern dry zone of Karnataka

A field experiment was conducted during 2023-24 at MHREC, UHS main campus, Bagalkot district. The study entitled “Evaluating Soil Fertility and Carbon Sequestration Potential in different land use ecosystem in Northern dry zone of Karnataka”. The experiment was conducted with nine treatments and four replications using randomized complete block design. The primary objectives were to compare soil fertility status, soil carbon stocks and their relationship under different land use ecosystem. The results of soil fertility status of different land use ecosystems indicated that. The soil available nitrogen (201.01 kg/ha), potassium (352.73 kg/ha) and organic carbon (7.80 g/kg) was highest in the rhizosphere of teak ecosystem compared to other treatments. Whereas, available phosphorus was higher in the rhizosphere of guava ecosystem (66.17 kg/ha) and the exchangeable calcium [21.02 (cmol (p⁺) kg^-1)] and magnesium [5.10 (cmol (p⁺) kg^-1)] was recorded higher in the rhizosphere of mango ecosystem, while highest available sulphur (23.85 mg/kg) was noticed in the rhizosphere of teak ecosystem. Lower bulk density (1.28 Mg/m³) were found in teak ecosystem. The highest soil organic carbon stock (1.50 t/ha), highest total carbon and total nitrogen (13.45 g/kg and 0.67 g/kg, respectively) were found in the rhizosphere of teak ecosystem compare to all other ecosystem. Based on overall assessment of results, it could be concluded that the teak ecosystem shows the best result for capturing carbon stock in soil which help in maintaining soil fertility status.