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The presence of trees in agroforestry systems modified the ecological process due to continuous addition of litter and decomposition activities and thus makes the system more efficient in terms of nutrient cycling and nutrient availability to the crops. However, the amount of nutrient released from the litter depends on the various factors like climate, abundance of soil microbes, species characteristics, land use pattern and their management activities, etc. Thus the understanding of soil nutrients dynamics in agroforestry is very crucial as it influences the amount of biomass production and availability of soil nutrients in soil and overall controlling the nutrient cycling in situ.

The availability of nutrients in the soil has an immense role in the overall growth and development of plant by influencing the productivity and species composition. Any changes in the physical, chemical and biological parameters of the soil affect the productivity of the soil thus by influencing the nutrient balance in soil and plant system. In other words, soil nutrients are very dynamics in nature and tend to change into various forms which control the availability to the plant body.  Soil nutrient dynamics can be defined as the study of changes in nutrient status (quantity and forms) in a soil ecosystem under a given set of environment in temporal and spatial manner due to continuous biogeochemical processes operating in the system. It is clear from this definition, nutrient cycling of various elements involved in the ecosystem are dynamic and complex one. The ecological processes in agroforestry systems due to continuous addition of litter and decomposition activities make the system more efficient in terms of carbon stocking and nutrient cycling (Singh et al., 2019).

The practices of agroforestry involves the association of trees with agricultural crops has been recognized as a viable land use system for maintaining the soil fertility and productivity in the agro-ecosystems. It is also well known accepted and highlighted the importance of agroforestry system in regulating nutrient cycling in agro-ecosystems. However, the efficiency of an agroforestry system (AFS) depends on the amount of nutrient released from components during the decomposition process along with amount and timing of the released nutrients to satisfy the needs of the components.  While, on the other side soil nutrients losses had been occurred through the process of runoff, erosion, leaching, gaseous losses, crop removal, nutrient fixation, etc.

Nutrient cycling in Agroforestry system

It is believed that agroforestry systems can promote efficient nutrient cycling than any other agricultural systems by regulating the uptake, recycling and synchronization (Nair, 1993). Interestingly, agroforestry trees species are more capable of taking up the nutrients (nutrient pumping) and water from the deep layers that are usually not utilized by the herbaceous crops. The accumulation of litter and their decomposition processes which played a major role for soil fertility improvement in any agroforestry systems.  However, the amount of nutrient released from the litter depends on the various factors like climate, abundance of soil microbes, species characteristics, land use pattern and their management activities, etc. Thus the understanding of soil nutrients dynamics in agroforestry is very crucial as it influences the amount of biomass production and availability of soil nutrients in soil and overall controlling the nutrient cycling in situ (Rawat and Singh, 1988).

Reasons for studying soil nutrient dynamics in agroforestry systems

·            Nutrient turn over estimation

·            Impact of root (fine and coarse) dynamics on nutrient supplement

·            Litter fall  rate and its associated nutrient dynamics

·            For estimation of leaf and litter decomposition rate and its nutrient release pattern

·            For assessing the activity of soil microbial population

For more details please download the pdf

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Soil Nutrient Dynamics.pdf