Distribution and Nature of Organic Matter along the Profiles of Some Rice Soils of West Bengal

Preliminary studies were made on the distribution and nature of organic matter occurring along the profiles of two representative water logged rice soils of alluvial origin. Two layers (0–15 and 15–30 cm depth) of soils from each profile were examined. Quantitative estimation of non-humic fraction, humic acid, fulvic acid and humin fraction was done. The nature of humic acids was revealed from functional group analysis, optical density and infrared spectra. It has been observed from these findings that the humic acids occurring in the bottom layers a re more aromatised in nature than the top layers.