Soil Temperature and Moisture Stress: Response of Some Selected Physico-chemical Properties of Soil Along with Practice of Plant and Microbes-derived Organic Fertilizers

Abstract

In favor of assessing the influences of soil temperature elevation and moisture stress on physico-chemical properties of soil including soil reaction (pH), organic carbon (OC) content, availability of Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), Potassium (K), Calcium (Ca) and Magnesium (Mg), field experiments were carried out over two seasons incorporated with organic materials of tricho-compost (TC), rice straw compost (RSC) and mustard meal (MM). Temperature elevation of 3°C from daily field temperature (23-25°C), and two different moisture levels - moist (70% moisture) and saturated (>100% moisture) - were considered simultaneously along with the application of TC at the dosages of 0, 2.5, 5; RSC at 0, 4, 8 and MM at 0, 3, 6 t ha-1. Elevated temperature markedly augmented OC (0.41 to 0.98%), N (1.07 to 4.98 m mol kg-1), P (0.39 to 0.86 m mol kg-1), K (0.12 to 0.34 c mol kg-1), Ca (2.13 to 5.97 c mol kg-1) and Mg (1.09 to 2.93 c mol kg-1) contents in soil during first season with RSC followed by MM and TC. The moist condition of soil, accompanied by the selected amendments had almost collateral effects on the aforesaid analyzed properties of soil in contrast to saturated condition. The carry-over effects of these treatments were most striking on selected properties in subsequent soil with TC succeeded by MM and RSC. Among the used amendments, TC exerted the most striking effect on nutrient availability because of the abundance of Trichoderma spp. even under stress conditions. The elevated temperature significantly (P ≤ .05) reduced the C/N ratios during both seasons which accelerated the organic matter decomposition and markedly influenced availability of N (45.39%), P (49.23%) and K (21.83%) revealed from regression analysis, irrespective of seasons. Moreover, the practice of tricho-compost over its sustainability – under climatic stress conditions - can therefore be good determinative over recovery of soil health via ameliorating soil organic matter and nutrient status.