Water table and soil moisture distribution below some agroforestry tree species

A field experiment in an agroforestry system was conducted to study the water table and soil moisture distribution below Populus deltoides, Eucalyptus hybrid, Syzygium cumini and Trewia nudiflora trees inter cropped with wheat and urd under Nainital tarai conditions of U.P. Water table depth ranged between 85 cm under trees (July-August) to 117 cm in open (May-June) thereby a deep water table was recorded in the month of June and a shallow in August. Soil moisture was significantly higher under trees as compared to open showing an increasing trend with the depth and a decreasing trend with the season. T. nudiflora followed by others retained good moisture in soil but the effect, in general, was largely masked by the shallow water table conditions. T. nudiflo­ra followed by S. cumini found a suitable tree species for inter cropping.