Abstract
Soil compaction has been recognized as global problem affecting the soils throughout the world. More demands of food and
wood with increased population, has resulted in intensive cultivation and increased mechanization of our farmlands and
irrigated forest plantations. This mechnization causes soil compaction and affects soils quality physically as well as chemically
on every passage. Many studies have been conducted to assess soil compaction tolerance of agronomic crops but study
reporting soil compaction tolerance of trees is scarce. This research was conducted to analyze the impacts of compacted soil
on sprouting and eco-morphological traits of Bombax ceiba (Simal) at initial growth stages during 2016. Uniformed sized
stumps of B. ceiba were planted in five types of earthern beds that were under five different induced soil compaction levels i.e.
1.30, 1.40, 1.55, 1.65 and 1.80Mg/m3
. Morphological (i.e. Sprouting %age, survival %age, diameter of the plant, shoot length,
shoot fresh weight, shoot dry weight , root length, root fresh weight, root dry weight and root/shoot ratio etc.) and physiological
parameters (i.e. photosynthetic rate, transpiration rate, stomatal conductance and photosynthetic water use efficiency) were
measured at the termination of experiment. It was found that the morphophysiological parameters were strongly effected by
the induced soil compaction. Compacted soil reduced sprouting and survival %age upto 55%, stem diameter growth upto 60%,
root and shoot length upto 55%, fresh weight of shoot and root upto 44% whereas their dry biomass were reduced upto 50%
as compared to un-compacted soil. Leaf area and number of leaves were also reduced to half when compared with control
treatments. This study shows that careless mechanization of farmlands and irrigated forest plantations may result in the poor
plant growth and biomass production
Muhammad Asif, Muhammad Farrakh Nawaz, Muhammad Tahir Siddiqui, Muhammad Maqsood. (2020) EFFECT OF INDUCED SOIL COMPACTION ON THE ECOMORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS OF EARLY STAGE Bombax ceiba STUMPS, Pakistan Journal of Agricultural Sciences, Volume 57, Issue 3.
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