Impact of deforestation on soil physicochemical characteristics, microbialbiomass and microbial activity of tropical soil

The study dealt with the assessment of the impact of deforestation on tropi cal soil through a comparative analysis of physicochemical and microbiologi cal parameters of natural forest and a deforested barren site. With signifi cant decline in clay, texturally the soil of the deforested barren site was observed to be different from that of natural forest. Bull; density and po rosity data revealed structural deterioration of deforested barren soil. Th e soil hydrological regime was also adversely affected by the deforestation . Levels of soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, microbial biomass C, N and microfungal biomass also exhibited significant decline in deforested site. Analysis of microbial respiratory quotient (q CO2) was also observed to be impaired in the deforested site. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd .