Soil microbial community structure and system productivity in Aonla (Emblica officinalis) based hortipasture system Singh H. V.*, Kumar Sunil, Shukla A. K. Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute, Jhansi-284 003, Uttar Pradesh India *Corresponding author email- drharsh2006@rediffmail.com
Online published on 21 July, 2012. Abstract Interaction of different soil moisture conservation technique (MCT) and pasture species i.e. Cenchrus ciliaris and Stylosanthes seabrana productivity as well as growth stage and soil microbial community structure were studied. In hortipasture system, pasture species had direct impact on soil microbial community structure. Among soil MCT, contour staggered trench was significantly better in conserving soil moisture (5.38 and 4.28%) at 15–30 and 0–15 cm depth and yielded higher forage (8.28t/ha) of Cenchrus ciliaris and maximum soil microbial population (7.70, 106.40 and 91.68) x105 cfu/g soil of fungi, bacteria and actinomycetes respectively. Higher microbial, fungi, bacteria and actinomycetes population was recorded with rhizospheric soil of C. ciliaris, while rhizosphere soil of S. seabrana had lowest microbial population. Active growth stage (sprout to flower initiation) of all crops significantly had higher soil microbial population than dormant stage. Soil moisture content due to different soil MCT also had significant effect on soil microbial population in all the crops. Top Keywords Fodder, Hortipasture, Leaf litter, Microbial community, Primary production, Range grasses, Range legume, Rhizosphere, Staggered trench. Top |