Differentiation and characterization of coarse-textured soils of Mansa district of Punjab

The coarse-textured soils of Mansa district of Punjab (India) were differentiated using remote sensing technique, and characterized for their morphological, physico-chemical and mineralogical properties to classify these as per Soil Taxonomy. The Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS) Resourcesat-1 LISS III data were processed on ERDAS IMAGINE software for isoclustering with 50 numbers of classes on the rectified images to differentiate coarse textured soils based on photo elements and digital number of the pixels. The coarse-texture soils are spread all over the district in small patches. The soils from sand dunes and old flood plains showed A-C horizon sequence whereas from alluvial terraces exhibited A-Bw-C horizon sequence. The soils varied in texture from sandy loam to loamy sand whereas in pH from 8.1 to 9.2 in different profiles. The soils were low in organic carbon varying from 0.09 to 0.43 per cent due to limited biological activity and rapid decomposition of biomass under semi-arid to arid climatic conditions. quartz was the dominant mineral in sand and silt fractions. Mica showed selective removal from the sand fraction by aeolian activity. After illite, chlorite was found to be the second most dominant mineral in the clay fraction. The soils from sand dunes with no pedogenesis were classified as Ustic Torripsamments, from alluvial terraces had structural B- horizon were classified as Ustic Haplocambids, and from old flood plains had stratified parent material were classified as Ustic Torrifluvents.