Effects of seasons on soil organic carbon and nitrogen pool dynamics in different land uses of Delhi NCR region of India

Four different Land uses were sampled in Delhi NCR region of India to evaluate the effects of seasons on soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), soil inorganic nitrogen (SIC), Soil pH, Soil EC and soil C/N ratio. A study was carried out in the Protected forest (PF) and Unprotected forest (UPF) of the South Central Ridge of Aravallis (28°32′00″N 77°10′40″E) near Vasant Kunj and Mehrauli in Delhi, as well as in the Organic Farming (OF) and Chemical Farming (CF) fields located in Bulandsahar (Uttar Pradesh state in northern India having coordinates 28026’N 770 50; E), Ghaziabad, UP of India. Soil samples were collected in the summer (March), monsoon (July) and winter (December) seasons of the year 2015 from various depths 0-5, 5-10, 10-15, 15- 20 & 20-30cm. A significant difference (P<0.05) was observed in sampling depth in SOC, TN, pH and EC in the all four selected land use, but only PF has shown significant differences in SIC across the depth and CF in C/N ratio. But no significant differences were observed across the three seasons (summer, monsoon and winter) in the SOC, TN and C/N ratio in all the four selected land use. Statistically significant (P<0.05) were observed across the season in soil pH and soil EC. In all the land use pH was observed highest in monsoon while lowest in summer seasons. Soil EC was observed highest in summer season while almost same in monsoon and winter seasons.