Appraisal of changes in bulk density and nitrogen content of a vertisol as affected by land use practices and depth

Field study was conducted at Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) Research Farm, Lakhnwara, Jabalpur to evaluate the changes in bulk density and nitrogen (available and total) contents of a Vertisol as affected by land use practices and depth of soil after harvest of kharif and rabi seasons of 2015-16. Soil samples were collected with the help of core auger from the fields practiced with different land uses [L1: Uncultivated, L2: rice-wheat system with conventional agriculture (CS), L3: rice-wheat system with conservation agriculture (CA), L4: soybean-wheat system with CS, L5: soybean-wheat system with CA, L6: maize -wheat system with CS and L7: maize-wheat system with CA] at 0-5 cm, 5-15 cm and 15-30 cm depths. For statistical analysis of data in split plot design land use practices were considered as main plot and depth (0-5 cm, 5-15 cm and 15-30 cm) as sub-plot treatments with three replications. It was found that bulk density was significantly affected by land use practices over soil depths with highest (1.51 and 1.49 Mg m-3) under uncultivated (L1) and lowest in maize -wheat system with CS (L6) treatments, respectively for kharif and rabi season. Bulk density of soil in 5-15 cm depth was lowest (1.36 Mg m-3) during both the seasons as compared those in 0-5 cm and 15-30 cm soil depths.