Physico-chemical variations in soils across urban proximity in van panchayat and reserved forests of the Western Himalaya

Abstract

The Himalayan region supports diverse forest ecosystems, where soil–vegetation interactions play important role in forest productivity and biodiversity conservation.

The numerous studies have been examined for the interactions forests ecosystems, however, the little is known about the proximity of urban settlements that influences community-managed Van Panchayat forests. In the present study, vegetation analysis was conducted using random quadrats method and soil samples also collected randomly from the sites and each site has three different depths (i.e., 0–30, 30–60 and 60–90 cm). We compared the physico-chemical properties of soils and forest structure in Van Panchayat (VP) area forests located near and far from the urban areas, using a Reserved Forest (RF) near Pauri town as a benchmark. Results showed that soil organic carbon (SOC), moisture content, and nutrient availability were consistently lower in urban-proximate VP forests compared to remote VP forests and the highest value recorded in RF site. The RF exhibited the maximum moisture content (12.83 %), water-holding capacity (82.1 %), bulk density (1.24 g cm⁻³), pH (6.73), total carbon (1.20 %), total nitrogen (223.95 kg ha⁻¹), available potassium (164.39 kg ha⁻¹), and available phosphorus (25.53 kg ha⁻¹) compared to VP forests. The findings illustrate that the susceptibility of peri‑urban community forests in the Himalayan hills to anthropogenic influences such as grazing, picnic spots and garbage dumping, underlining the importance of focused management techniques for soil health and forest ecosystem services in the Himalayan region.