An ecological survey of land use and soil erosion in the West Pakistan and Azad Kashmir catchment of the River Jhelum.
Abstract
With the aid of aerial photographs, a survey of the geology, soils, vegetation and land use and an assessment of land capability were made. Erosion is widespread over the area and most of the soils are truncated or skeletal. Mature soils are rare and practically all are found under relatively untouched forest or under grassland developed from forest at high elevations. The soils are deficient in organic matter, N and P. The vegetation is determined mainly by altitude, ranging from sub-tropical sclerophyll woodland at 300-750 m to sub-alpine and alpine vegetation at 3 600-6 200 m with permanent snow above 4 200 m.