Soil Organic Carbon Dynamics and Carbon Management Index under Forest and Agricultural Land-Use Systems in the Western Himalayas

Shahzad Naseer Awan; Hamayun Shaheen; Raja Waqar Ahmed Khan; Muhammad Ejaz Ul Islam Dar; Waqas Ahmed; Madiha Ashraf

doi:10.15832/ankutbd.1869429

Soil Organic Carbon Dynamics and Carbon Management Index under Forest and Agricultural Land-Use Systems in the Western Himalayas

Abstract

Himalayan soils are highly susceptible to the impacts of climate change and land-use shifts. Soil organic carbon (SOC) and the carbon management index (CMI) are key measures of soil health in response to land use changes. This study assessed total organic carbon (TOC), carbon fractions, carbon pool index (CPI), CMI, and physicochemical properties in forest and agricultural land-use systems in the temperate western Himalayas. Soil samples were collected across 32 distinct sites representing forest (FS), wheat (WS), rice (RS), and maize (MS) systems (n = 32). FS exhibited the highest average TOC (25.6 g kg-1), followed by MS (19.3 g kg-1), WS (15.2 g kg-1), and RS (14 g kg-1). TOC levels differed significantly between land-use categories (ANOVA; F = 13.4, P< 0.001), with all agricultural systems showing significantly lower TOC levels than forests. The maximum concentration of labile carbon (LC) was identified in FS (4.3%), while the lowest was observed in WS (2.8%). MS had the highest CPI (0.75), whereas RS had the highest average CMI (85.5), indicating distinct carbon management dynamics despite lower baseline TOC. TOC was positively correlated with altitude and electrical conductivity but negatively correlated with soil pH. Multiple linear regression (R2 = 0.70) confirmed land-use type as the primary predictor of TOC variation, showing significant reductions for RS (11.6 g kg-1), WS (10.7 g kg-1), and MS (4.9 g kg-1) compared to the forest baseline (P< 0.05). Principal component analysis successfully differentiated agricultural and forest systems based on topography, soil properties, and carbon pools. The primary cause of SOC depletion is the initial conversion of forests to farmland, underscoring the need for climate smart land management to maintain ecosystem services and replenish regional carbon stocks.

Keywords

Supporting Institution

N/A

Project Number

N/A

Ethical Statement

N/A

Thanks

N/A

References

Abbas A, Naveed M, Khan K S, Ashraf M, Siddiqui M H, Abbas N & Ali L (2024). The efficacy of organic amendments on maize productivity, soil properties, and active fractions of soil carbon in organic-matter-deficient soil. Spanish Journal of Soil Science, 14: 12814
Abbott L K & Manning D A C (2015). Soil health and related ecosystem services in organic agriculture. Sustainable Agriculture Research, 4(3): 116–125
Blair G J, Lefroy R D B & Lisle L (1995). Soil carbon fractions based on their degree of oxidation, and the development of a carbon management index for agricultural systems. Crop and Pasture Science 46(7) 1459–1466
Brady N C & Weil R R (2002). The nature and properties of soils (13th ed.). Pearson Education. Carey C J, Weverka J, DiGaudio R, Gardali T & Porzig E L (2020). Exploring variability in rangeland soil organic carbon stocks across California (USA) using a voluntary monitoring network. Geoderma Regional, 22, e00304.
Cambardella C A & Elliott E T (1992). Particulate soil organic-matter changes across a grassland cultivation sequence. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 56: 777–783
Che L, Cheng M, Xing L, Cui Y & Wan L (2022). Effects of permafrost degradation on soil organic matter turnover and plant growth. Catena, 208, 105721.
Chen G S, Yang Y S, Xie J S, Liu L & Gao R (2004). Soil biological changes for a natural forest and two plantations in subtropical China. Pedosphere, 14(3), 297–304.
Cihacek L J, Foss L A & Jacobson K A (2015). Comparison of Soil Sampling Devices for Soil Bulk Density Determination for Carbon Sequestration Monitoring. Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis, 46(2), 180–184.

Conant R T, Paustian K & Elliott E T (2001). Grassland management and conversion into grassland: Effects on soil carbon. Ecological Applications 11(2): 343–355
Cotrufo M F, Ranalli M G, Haddix M L, Six J & Lugato E (2019). Soil carbon storage informed by particulate and mineral-associated organic matter. Nature Geoscience, 12: 989–994
Craig M E, Geyer K M, Beidler K V, Brzostek E R, Frey S D, Grandy A S & Phillips R P (2022). Fast-decaying plant litter enhances soil carbon in temperate forests but not through microbial physiological traits. Nature Communications 13(1): 1229. Demir Z (2020). Quantifying some physical properties and organic matter of soils under different management systems in cherry orchards. Eurasian Journal of Soil Science, 9(3): 208–221
Diekow J, Mielniczuk J, Knicker H, Bayer C, Dick D P & Kögel-Knabner I (2005). Carbon and nitrogen stocks in physical fractions of a subtropical Acrisol as influenced by long-term no-till cropping systems and N fertilization. Plant and Soil, 268: 319–328 Du H, Zeng F, Peng W, Wang K, Zhang H, Liu L & Song T (2015). Carbon storage in a Eucalyptus plantation chronosequence in southern China. Forests, 6(6): 1763–1778
Dvorakova K, Shi P, Limbourg Q & van Wesemael B (2020). Soil organic carbon mapping from remote sensing: The effect of crop residues. Remote Sensing 12(12): 1913
Elbasiouny H, El-Ramady H, Elbehiry F, Rajput V D, Minkina T & Mandzhieva S (2022). Plant nutrition under climate change and soil carbon sequestration. Sustainability, 14(2): 914
Ellert B H & Bettany J R (1995). Calculation of organic matter and nutrients stored in soils under contrasting management regimes. Canadian Journal of Soil Science, 75(4): 529-538
Georgiou K, Jackson R B, Vindušková O, Abramoff R Z, Ahlström A, Feng W & Torn M S (2022). Global stocks and capacity of mineralassociated soil organic carbon. Nature Communications, 13(1): 3797
Ghosh P K, Hazra K K & Nath C P (2018). Soil carbon management through crop diversification and sustainable intensification. Lead Papers, 31: 1–15
Government of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (2019). Planning and development department annual report. Muzaffarabad, Pakistan. Gu Z, Gu L, Eils R, Schlesner M & Brors B (2014). circlize implements and enhances circular visualization in R. Bioinformatics, 30(19), 2811–2812. https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btu393
Hammer Ø, Harper D A T & Ryan P D (2001). PAST: Paleontological statistics software package for education and data analysis. Palaeontologia Electronica, 4(1), Article 9.
A Kalambukattu J G, Singh R, Patra A K & Arunkumar K (2013). Soil carbon pools and carbon management index under different land use systems in the central Himalayan region. Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica, Section B—Soil & Plant Science 63(3): 200–205
Kassambara (2026). ggpubr: ggplot2-based https://doi.org/10.32614/CRAN.package.ggpubr publication ready plots (R package version 0.6.3).
Kassambara A & Mundt F (2026). factoextra: Extract and visualize the results of multivariate data analyses (R package version 2.0.0). https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=factoextra
Khan R W A & Shaheen H (2022). Biomass carbon stock estimation in lesser Himalayan subtropical broadleaf forests of Kashmir. Taiwania, 67(1): 47–54
Khan R W A, Shaheen H, Mehmood A & Awan S N (2019). Grazing intensity impacts on soil carbon stocks of western Himalayan alpine paddocks. Carbon Management 10(6): 533–540
Kuhn M (2008). Building predictive models in R using the caret package. Journal of Statistical Software, 28(5), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v028.i05
Kumar J, Bhardwaj D R, Thakur C L, Sharma P & Sharma P (2024). Soil organic carbon dynamics under different land use systems in dry temperate ecosystem of north-western Himalayas. Catena, 240, 108022.
Lehmann J & Kleber M (2015). The contentious nature of soil organic matter. Nature, 528(7580): 60–68 Li S, Su J, Liu W, Lang X, Huang X, Jia C & Tong Q (2015). Changes in biomass carbon and soil organic carbon stocks following the conversion from a secondary coniferous forest to a pine plantation. PLOS ONE, 10(9), e0135946.
Liu J, Wang T, Lan L, Meng Q, Xu J, Hu M, Sajid T & Meng J (2025). Improving Soil Health and Rice Yields with the Application of Soil Amendments in Acidic Paddy Soils. Agronomy 16(1): 9
Martin A R, Domke G M, Doraisami M & Thomas S C (2021). Carbon fractions in the world’s dead wood. Nature communications, 12(1): 889
Mir Y H, Ganie M A, Shah T I, Aezum A M, Bangroo S A, Mir S A & Dar A A (2023). Soil organic carbon pools and carbon management index under different land use systems in northwestern Himalayas. PeerJ, 11, e15266.
Negi V, Bhardwaj D R, Sharma P & Pala N A (2022). Tree species composition and diversity in natural temperate forests of the north-western Himalayas. Acta Ecologica Sinica, 42(6): 653–660
Nthebere K, Mazvimavi D, Marake M, Mochala M, Raliengoane T, Mohseni B, Kujinga K & Onema J M K (2025). Variability in the carbon management index and enzymatic activity under distinct altitudes in the alpine wetlands of Lesotho. Sustainability, 17(19): 8571. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17198571
Pandey R, Rawat M, Singh R & Bala N (2023). Large-scale spatial assessment, modelling, and identification of drivers of soil respiration in the western Himalayan temperate forest. Ecological Indicators, 146: 109927.
R Core Team. (2025). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. https://www.rproject.org/
Rawat M, Arunachalam K & Arunachalam A (2021). Tree species influence soil respiration in a temperate forest of Uttarakhand Himalaya, India. Journal of Sustainable Forestry, 40(8): 820–830
Ren X, Chen F, Ma T & Hu Y (2020). Soil quality characteristics as affected by continuous rice cultivation and changes in cropping systems in South China. Agriculture, 10(10): 443
Sanderman, J., Hengl, T., & Fiske, G. J. (2018). Soil carbon debt of 12,000 years of human land use. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 115(1): 1–6
Shaheen H, Awan S N, Khan R W A, Khalid A R, Ahmed W & Chughtai F M (2021). Variations in soil organic carbon stocks under different land-use categories in subtropical ecosystems of Kashmir. Forest Science 67(5): 525–536
Shaheen, H., Khan, R. W. A., Hussain, K., Ullah, T. S., Nasir, M., & Mehmood, A. (2016). Carbon stocks assessment in subtropical forest types of Kashmir Himalayas. Pakistan Journal of Botany 48(6): 2351–2357
Shaheen H, Saeed Y, Abbasi M K & Khaliq A (2017). Soil carbon stocks along an altitudinal gradient in different land-use categories in lesser Himalayan foothills of Kashmir. Eurasian Soil Science, 50(4): 432–437
Shang S, Jiang P, Chang S X, Song Z, Liu J & Sun L (2014). Soil organic carbon in particle size and density fractionations under four forest vegetation–land use types in subtropical China. Forests 5(6): 1391–1408
Sheikh M A, Kumar M & Bussmann R W (2009). Altitudinal variation in soil organic carbon stock in coniferous subtropical and broadleaf temperate forests in Garhwal Himalaya. Carbon Balance and Management, 4(1): 1–6
Sivaranjani S & Panwar V P (2021). Environmental controls and influences of Pinus roxburghii Sarg. (Chir pine) plantation on temporal variation in soil carbon dioxide emission and soil organic carbon stock under humid subtropical region. Environmental monitoring and assessment, 193(10): 630
Six J, Elliott E T, Paustian K & Doran J W (1998). Aggregation and soil organic matter accumulation in cultivated and native grassland soils. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 62: 1367–1377
Smith P, House J I, Bustamante M, Sobocká J, Harper R, Pan G & West P C (2016). Global change pressures on soils from land use and management. Global Change Biology, 22: 1008–1028
Sodhi G P S, Beri V & Benbi D K (2009). Using carbon management index to assess the impact of compost application on changes in soil carbon after ten years of rice–wheat cropping. Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis, 40(21–22): 3491–3502.
Sykes A J, Macleod M, Eory V, Rees R M, Payen F, Myrgiotis V & Williams M (2020). Characterising the biophysical, economic and social impacts of soil carbon sequestration as a greenhouse gas removal technology. Global Change Biology, 26(3): 1085–1108
Upadhyay T P, Sankhayan P L & Solberg B (2005). A review of carbon sequestration dynamics in the Himalayan region as a function of landuse change and forest/soil degradation with special reference to Nepal. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 105(3): 449–465.
Usowicz B & Lipiec J (2017). Spatial variability of soil properties and cereal yield in a cultivated field on sandy soil. Soil and Tillage Research, 174: 241–250
Walkley A & Black I A (1934). An examination of the Degtjareff method for determining soil organic matter and a proposed modification of the chromic acid titration method. Soil Science, 37(1): 29–38
Wander, M. M., Bidart, M. G., & Aref, S. (1998). Tillage impacts on depth distribution of total and particulate organic matter in three Illinois soils. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 62(6): 1704–1711
Wani N, Velmurugan A & Dadhwal V (2010). Assessment of agricultural crop and soil carbon pools in Madhya Pradesh, India. Tropical Ecology, 51(1): 11–19
Wickham H (2016). ggplot2: Elegant graphics for data analysis. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24277-4
Wickham H, Averick M, Bryan J, Chang W, McGowan L D, François R, Grolemund G, Hayes A, Henry L, Hester J, Kuhn M, Pedersen T L, Miller E, Bache S M, Müller K, Ooms J, Robinson D, Seidel D P, Spinu V, Takahashi K, Vaughan D, Wilke C, Woo K & Yutani H (2019).
Welcome to the tidyverse. Journal of Open Source Software, 4(43), 1686. https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.01686 Wickham H, François R, Henry L, Müller K & Vaughan D (2026). dplyr: A grammar of data manipulation (R package version 1.2.1). https://doi.org/10.32614/CRAN.package.dplyr
Wood S N (2017). Generalized additive models: An introduction with R (2nd ed.). Chapman and Hall/CRC. Wu X, Nguyen-Sy T, Sun Z, Watanabe T, Tawaraya K, Hu R & Cheng W (2020). Soil organic matter dynamics as affected by land use change from rice paddy to wetland. Wetlands, 40: 2199–2207
Wuest S B & Gollany H T (2013). Soil organic carbon and nitrogen after application of nine organic amendments. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 77: 237–245
Xie J Y, Xu M G, Ciren Q, Yang Y, Zhang S L, Sun B H & Yang X Y (2015). Soil aggregation and aggregate-associated organic carbon and total nitrogen under long-term contrasting soil management regimes in loess soil. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 14(12): 2405–2416
Yadav G S, Lal R, Meena R S, Datta M, Babu S, Das A & Saha P (2017). Energy budgeting for designing sustainable and environmentally cleaner cropping systems for rainfed rice fallow lands in India. Journal of Cleaner Production, 158: 29–37
Zahra S I, Abbas F, Ishaq W, Ibrahim M, Hammad H M, Akram B & Salik M R (2016). Carbon sequestration potential of soils under maize production in irrigated agriculture of the Punjab province of Pakistan. Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences, 26: 706–715
Zepp S, Heiden U, Bachmann M, Möller M, Wiesmeier M & van Wesemael B (2023). Optimized bare soil compositing for soil organic carbon prediction of topsoil croplands in Bavaria using Landsat. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 202: 287–302
Zeraatpishe M & Khormali F (2012). Carbon stock and mineral factors controlling soil organic carbon in a climatic gradient, Golestan Province. Journal of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, 12(4): 637–654
Zhang J, Huang H, Liu H, Wu H, Zhang Z, Wang G, Xue S & Liu G (2023). Effects of soil microbiological properties on the fractional distribution and stability of soil organic carbon under different nitrogen addition treatments. Forests, 14(8): 1540

Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Soil Chemistry and Soil Carbon Sequestration (Excl. Carbon Sequestration Science)

Journal Section

Research Article

Authors

Shahzad Naseer Awan This is me
0000-0002-5424-0785
Pakistan

Hamayun Shaheen This is me
0000-0001-5978-192X
Pakistan

Raja Waqar Ahmed Khan ^*
0000-0001-6308-3374
Pakistan

Muhammad Ejaz Ul Islam Dar This is me
0000-0003-1560-1995
Pakistan

Waqas Ahmed This is me
0009-0002-4973-0496
Pakistan

Madiha Ashraf This is me
0009-0005-8865-7350
Pakistan

Publication Date

October 12, 2026

Submission Date

January 22, 2026

Acceptance Date

June 24, 2026

Published in Issue

Year 2026 Volume: 32 Number: 4

DOI

https://doi.org/10.15832/ankutbd.1869429

IZ

https://izlik.org/JA97HJ83UX

Cite

RIS / Bibtex

APA

Awan, S. N., Shaheen, H., Khan, R. W. A., Dar, M. E. U. I., Ahmed, W., & Ashraf, M. (2026). Soil Organic Carbon Dynamics and Carbon Management Index under Forest and Agricultural Land-Use Systems in the Western Himalayas. Journal of Agricultural Sciences, 32(4), 1223-1235. https://doi.org/10.15832/ankutbd.1869429

AMA

1.Awan SN, Shaheen H, Khan RWA, Dar MEUI, Ahmed W, Ashraf M. Soil Organic Carbon Dynamics and Carbon Management Index under Forest and Agricultural Land-Use Systems in the Western Himalayas. J Agr Sci-Tarim Bili. 2026;32(4):1223-1235. doi:10.15832/ankutbd.1869429

Chicago

Awan, Shahzad Naseer, Hamayun Shaheen, Raja Waqar Ahmed Khan, Muhammad Ejaz Ul Islam Dar, Waqas Ahmed, and Madiha Ashraf. 2026. “Soil Organic Carbon Dynamics and Carbon Management Index under Forest and Agricultural Land-Use Systems in the Western Himalayas”. Journal of Agricultural Sciences 32 (4): 1223-35. https://doi.org/10.15832/ankutbd.1869429.

EndNote

Awan SN, Shaheen H, Khan RWA, Dar MEUI, Ahmed W, Ashraf M (October 1, 2026) Soil Organic Carbon Dynamics and Carbon Management Index under Forest and Agricultural Land-Use Systems in the Western Himalayas. Journal of Agricultural Sciences 32 4 1223–1235.

IEEE

[1]S. N. Awan, H. Shaheen, R. W. A. Khan, M. E. U. I. Dar, W. Ahmed, and M. Ashraf, “Soil Organic Carbon Dynamics and Carbon Management Index under Forest and Agricultural Land-Use Systems in the Western Himalayas”, J Agr Sci-Tarim Bili, vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 1223–1235, Oct. 2026, doi: 10.15832/ankutbd.1869429.

ISNAD

Awan, Shahzad Naseer - Shaheen, Hamayun - Khan, Raja Waqar Ahmed - Dar, Muhammad Ejaz Ul Islam - Ahmed, Waqas - Ashraf, Madiha. “Soil Organic Carbon Dynamics and Carbon Management Index under Forest and Agricultural Land-Use Systems in the Western Himalayas”. Journal of Agricultural Sciences 32/4 (October 1, 2026): 1223-1235. https://doi.org/10.15832/ankutbd.1869429.

JAMA

1.Awan SN, Shaheen H, Khan RWA, Dar MEUI, Ahmed W, Ashraf M. Soil Organic Carbon Dynamics and Carbon Management Index under Forest and Agricultural Land-Use Systems in the Western Himalayas. J Agr Sci-Tarim Bili. 2026;32:1223–1235.

MLA

Awan, Shahzad Naseer, et al. “Soil Organic Carbon Dynamics and Carbon Management Index under Forest and Agricultural Land-Use Systems in the Western Himalayas”. Journal of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 32, no. 4, Oct. 2026, pp. 1223-35, doi:10.15832/ankutbd.1869429.

Vancouver

1.Shahzad Naseer Awan, Hamayun Shaheen, Raja Waqar Ahmed Khan, Muhammad Ejaz Ul Islam Dar, Waqas Ahmed, Madiha Ashraf. Soil Organic Carbon Dynamics and Carbon Management Index under Forest and Agricultural Land-Use Systems in the Western Himalayas. J Agr Sci-Tarim Bili. 2026 Oct. 1;32(4):1223-35. doi:10.15832/ankutbd.1869429