Mapping and characterization of agriculturally important microbes in potential rajmash Phaseolus vulgaris L growing pockets in dry temperate zone of Himachal Pradesh

Abstract

The pulse-growing areas in dry temperate regions of Himachal Pradesh harbor specialized microbial communities adapted to newlinesuch unique ecological niches. These microbial communities being sensitive to various agricultural management practices newlinecould serve as principal indicators of edaphic environmental variations and ecosystem sustainability. The present study was newlinecarried out during kharif 2022 in dry temperate regions of Lahaul and Spiti and Kinnaur districts of Himachal Pradesh to newlinecharacterize agriculturally important microbes and to generate spatial variability maps of different soil properties in rajmash newlinegrowing pockets. Geo-referenced, 100 representative surface soil samples were collected near harvest of rajmash crop and newlineanalyzed for soil physical, chemical, and microbial properties using standard protocols. The soils in the study locations were newlinefound to be predominantly sandy loam in texture. Sand (%), silt (%) and clay (%) ranged from 48 to 61, 23 to 33 and 10 to 22 newlinein Lahaul, 49 to 68, 21 to 32 and 9 to 16 in Spiti, 21 to 64, 23 to 50 and 10 to 31 in Kinnaur. Soil bulk density was observed to newlinebe maximum at high altitudes and minimum at low altitudes with average values of 1.31, 1.39 and 1.32 Mg m-3 in Lahaul, Spiti newlineand Kinnaur, respectively. Soil porosity and particle density were found to be identical across all the three locations, largely newlineranging between 46 to 47 per cent and 2.5 to 2.6 Mg m-3 newline, respectively. Water holding capacity varied inversely with altitude newlinewith identical retention capacities at Lahaul and Kinnaur (32%) and 30 per cent in Spiti. Lahaul soils were near neutral in newlinereaction (pH=6.99) whereas, Spiti soils were alkaline in nature (pH=7.57) and soils of Kinnaur were moderately acidic newline(pH=6.41). Regardless of the sampling sites, the soils of dry temperate regions of Himachal Pradesh exhibited high build-up newlineof OC i.e. 18.3 g kg-1 newlinein Lahaul, 18.8 g kg-1 in Spiti and 16.8 g kg-1 in Kinnaur. The cumulative mean values of CaCO3 suggested newlinethat Spiti soils possessed maximum CaCO3 l