Plant-soil relationships in Korangi and Landhi industrial areas in Karachi,Pakistan

A relationship between soil characteristics and plant communities of the industrial areas of korangi and landhi in karachi (pakistan) was studied. soil samples were analysed from twenty eight stands around the industrial areas of korangi and landhi. on the basis of leading dominant species,fifteen plant communities were recognized in which some of the communities were purely dominated by single species. the soil characteristics were also determined. all the communities were correlated with the edaphic conditions of the industrial areas. the range of coarse sand,water holding capacity,organic matter,total soluble salts and available sulfate were between 21-84%,22-35%,0.8-3.4%,4.5-14.0% and 125-575 mg kg-1,respectively,while,ph and caco3 ranged between 8.0-8.3 and 9.5-35.8%,respectively. all the plant communities,mean values of soil characteristics were: coarse sand 41%,water holding capacity 29%,organic matter 1.5%,total soluble salts 9.9%,available sulfate 279 mg kg-1,while the ph 8.2 and caco3 22% were high. in most of the dominant species,the soil characteristics were similar to those found in the respective plant communities. © pakistan academy of sciences.