Flood water influence on soil fertility in some districts of lower Sindh, Pakistan

Abstract

In order to visualize the damage caused by 2011 rains and flood in some districts of lower Sindh, Pakistan i.e. Mirpurkhas, Umerkot, Sanghar and Badin, a study was initiated to review the facts regarding the macronutrient status along with necessary physico-chemical soil properties. The seven randomly selected soils were sampled, three samples from each spot were taken at three depths (0-15, 15-30 and 30-45cm). Hence from every location three spots were randomly chosen, as one for relatively non-flooded soils (as a reference index) adjacent to heavily flooded soils for long durations. The analytical data after passing through laboratorial procedures depicted a variety of soil textures (from light to medium and heavy at some locations). Whereas, the pH of these soils was moderate to highly alkaline and electrical conductivity was recorded from 0.11 to 22 dS m -1 . The macronutrients as nitrogen was deficient, phosphorous was also in lower levels (0.1-3.7 mg kg -1 ) but potassium mostly remained in higher fractions (69-259 mg kg -1 ). The results also indicated that soils were found highly saline on many locations that might be due to the salt deposition by stagnant water. While, loss of organic matter were also reported may be because of rapidly flowing flooded water over them.