Characterization and Classification of Soils of West Coast of Southern Karnataka

摘要

Land degradation assessment indicated that around 120.4 million hectare (Mha) is degraded in India (ICAR-NAAS 2010) of which 74 Mha is due to water erosion, 5 Mha due to acid soils and 11 Mha due to wind erosion. In Karnataka 8.09 Mha is affected by different types of degradation of which 7.45 Mha is due to water erosion and 0.07 Mha is due to acid soils. Acid soils cover an area of 49 Mha in India, out of which 25 Mha have pH below 5.5 and 24 Mha between 5.5 and 6.5 (Misra 2004). The prevailing climate induces acidification in coastal soils of Karnataka mainly due to heavy rainfall followed by leaching of bases resulting in low CEC, coastal erosion and vegetative degradation. Soil erosion is mainly caused by the storm and rain water, which remove top soil containing organic matter and other plant nutrients thus causing loss of productivity. It was estimated that about 73 km of coastal Karnataka is affected by soil erosion (Joshi 1995).