Journal of Environmental Biology

Identification of soil properties influencing primary productivity of fish ponds under red and lateritic soil zones

A. Banerjee¹ and G.N. Chattopadhyay²*      

¹Department of Botany, Polba Mahavidyalaya, Polba-712 148, India

²School of Agriculture, Seacom Skills University, Kendradangal-731 236, India

Received: 26 August 2023                   Revised: 30 December 2023                   Accepted: 06 February 2024

*Corresponding Author Email : gunin.c2010@gmail.com                  *ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5474-9565

Abstract

Aim: The present study aimed to identify the key soil factors influencing the primary productivity of water in the fish ponds situated under low productive red and lateritic soil zones.

Methodology: General properties of fish pond soils (n=42) from different red and lateritic soil zones of West Bengal, India were determined along with the gross primary productivity (GPP) values of corresponding pond waters. All the soil properties were correlated with GPP values and the soil factors which were  significantly correlated with GPP of pond water were further used for step down regression analysis with regard to GPP.This helped to develop a minimum data set of the key soil factors which showed maximum influence on GPP.  The efficiency of the regression equation, generated with  the critical soil parameters, in  predicting  the GPP values  of other ponds was also assessed through a study on the variations in calculated and on-farm GPP values of eight fish ponds.

Results: Among all the studied soil properties, pH and availability of three major nutrients viz. N, P and K were observed to contribute 84.15% variations in gross production of primary fish food organisms in these pond environment. Of these 4 soil properties, again, pH and available P values of the pond soils appeared to be more important. A regression equation was also developed to predict the GPP of such pond water using soil pH and available P values only. This equation showed a precision range of 83.0 to 99.7% and was found to be statistically at par with  the GPP values observed under actual pond condition.

Interpretation: High efficiency in predictability of pond GPP values using the minimum data set of two key soil factors viz. soil pH and available P indicates that proper management of these productivity attributing soil properties will be particularly helpful to improve the primary productivity levels of the predominantly low yielding fish ponds under the red and lateritic soil zones.

Key words: Fish ponds, Minimum data set, Productivity attributes, Red and lateritic soil zones, Soil factors

Copyright © 2024 Triveni Enterprises. All rights reserved. No part of the Journal can be reproduced in any form without prior permission. Responsibility regarding the authenticity of the data, and the acceptability of the conclusions enforced or derived, rest completely with the author(s).