WATER RETENTION CHARACTERISTICS OF RED SOILS UNDER DIFFERENT LAND USE ECOSYSTEMS IN SOUTHERN TRANSITIONAL ZONE OF KARNATAKA

Studies on water retention characteristics of red soils under different land use ecosystems
indicated that, irrespective of the land use ecosystems maximum water holding capacity (MWHC)
and, water at both field capacity (FC) and wilting point (WP) showed increasing trend down the
profile. Soils under both arecanut and mixed forest land use ecosystems recorded the highest values
of MWHC, FC and WP. Solum weighted average indicated that soil under paddy land use ecosystem
recorded the highest (9.0%) available water content due to loamy textured nature. Despite clay
texture surface horizon of soil under mixed forest land use ecosystem recorded fair amount (9.0%) of
available water due to high organic matter content. Correlation studies indicated that most of the soil
properties were significantly correlated with water retention parameters. Among the water retention
parameters available water was significantly correlated with organic carbon (0.436*) and nonsignificantly
with cation exchange capacity (0.173). Multiple regression equations indicated that per
cent variation in maximum water holding capacity, available water and water at both field capacity
and wilting point due to the combined effect of the soil properties studied was to the tune of 91.1, 88.9,
90.7 and 46.3 respectively.