Impact of 20-year-old agroforestry systems on soil organic carbon fractions and biological activity in Central Himalayan foothills
Chayan Pant·Rajendra Bhatt·Suraj Melkani·G. K. Dwivedi·M. S. Negi·Anand Pathak·Jai Paul·Ardeep Kumar
Limited data exist on the long-term effects of agroforestry systems (AFSs) on carbon fractions and biological activity in Central Himalayan soils. To fill this knowledge gap, this study was conducted using ten randomly selected 20 year-old AFSs (treatments) and pure croplands (Control) and compared using Tukey’s HSD test. Soil samples were collected from 0 to 60 cm depth under AFSs and pure cropland. The total soil organic carbon (SOC), carbon fractions, active and passive carbon pools, microbia