PHYSICO-CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF SOIL IN RELATION TO SPECIES COMPOSITION AND DIVERSITY OF SUBTROPICAL AND TEMPERATE FOREST STANDS IN THE WESTERN HIMALAYA

The present communication aims to envisage the physico-chemical properties of soils in relation to the vegetational parameter in the subtropical and temperate forest stands of Western Himalaya. A total of four forest stands were investigated for various vegetational and physico-chemical properties ranging from 300-2250 m m.s.l. The study revealed that the soil moisture, water holding capacity (WHC) and total nitrogen recorded maximum (26.33%, 63.52%, and 0.41% respectively) in the mixed oak forest stands and minimum (19.09%, 46.28%, and 0.14% respectively) in the sal forest stands, however, the soil organic carbon (SOC) was reported maximum (4.25%) in banj-oak forest and minimum (1.23%) in sal forest stands. Temperate oak forests are richer in terms of specie richness, diversity as well as physical and chemical properties of soil as compare to subtropical sal and chir-pine forest stands. This result indicate that the soil nutrient dynamics is positively correlated with species diversity and richness of forest.