Interaction between Some Soil Physicochemical Properties and Weather Variables on Sub-humid Tropical Rainforest Soils of Cross River State, Southeastern Nigeria

Abstract

The study deals with the interaction between some soil physicochemical properties and weather variables on sub-humid tropical rainforest soils of Cross River State, Southeastern Nigeria. The study aims to determine the interactions between soil properties and weather variables of three land uses occurring on the tropical sandy soils. Soil samples were obtained from 10,000 m2 of UNICAL Teaching and Research farm (Arable farm), Oil palm plantation and Forestry Teaching and Research farm (Forest and wetland land use) respectively. A total of twenty-seven (27) soil samples were collected with nine (9) samples from each land use at 20 cm depth and at an interval of 50 m with the aid a soil auger and core sampler. The weather variable data from 2012 to 2015 was obtained from NIMET. The result revealed that the sandy soils of Calabar are characterised with coarse, predominantly sandy loam and loamy sand texture with particle size ranging 610-850 g/kg for sand 80 to 240 g/kg for clay and 30-150 g/kg for silt; generally acidic with low to medium organic matter content, low ECEC, low nitrogen, medium available P (15.04 mg/kg, 8.65 mg/kg and 2.78 mg/kg for arable farm, oil palm plantation and forestry land uses respectively). The study showed the correlation coefficient analysis between the high and low impact of weather variables on some soil properties and also recommended a proper management practice such as mulching to avoid direct impact of sunlight on the soil thereby ensuring maximum utilisation of tropical sandy soils of Calabar.