Temporal Change in Soil Properties

Soil management is now increasingly being identified at the core of present environmental problems of climate change and soil infertility. Globally, change in land use and management dramatically affects soil physico-chemical, microbial and aggregate properties. It consequently leads to decline in the soil quality on one side and to the enhanced CO2-induced global warming and climate change on the other side. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the SOC pools in various physical (i.e. aggregate size fractions, microbial biomass, water soluble C) and chemical (Labile and non-labile C) fractions of soil along with processes which affect them (such as soil microbial activity and aggregate dynamics). It would help in proper understanding of temporal dynamics of soil properties in dry tropical agro-ecosystem. It would be of immense importance in global climate change mitigation as these ecosystems inherently have strong nutrient conservative mechanisms and may act as potential C sink (due to strong C unsaturation and 41% land coverage). This book, therefore, reviews the temporal change in soil properties in mineral fertilizer based agricultural systems in dry tropical agro-ecosystem.