Studies on Morphological, Mineralogical and Physico-chemical Properties of Some Selected Soils of Different Agroclimatic Regions of West Bengal, India

A study was undertaken to investigate the morphological, mineralogical and physico-chemical characteristics of some selected soils of four agroclimatic regions namely, Red and Lateritic Zone, Old Alluvial Zone, Coastal Saline and New Alluvial Zone of West Bengal. Undisturbed soil samples were taken from identifiable upper two horizons. The morphological parameters include horizon with depth, colour, texture, structure, consistency and boundary of the soils. The soils under study were both fine and coarse textured soils and the subsurface layers contained higher amounts of clay than the surface layers. All these soils belonged to mixed mineralogy and hyperthermic temperature regime. The physico- chemical properties were found to vary with different agro-climatic regions. The mineralogical make-up and morphological characteristics of these soils seemed to influence the physico-chemical properties of the soils.