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Impact of rainfall and slopes on soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics was assessed under tea and coffee plantations, land covers, in Western Ghats Mountain (WGM). Severe water erosion in the western side of WGM by heavy rainfall and land sloppiness recorded less SOC (3.07%) compared to the eastern side (4.03%) in tea plantations. Similar trend in SOC was observed in coffee plantations, with 1.98% in western side and 3.25% in eastern side. Loss of soil organic carbon stock under tea plantations in western sides was 0.346 million tonnes and in coffee plantations it was 0.190 million tonnes. Hence, the total organic carbon loss was 0.536 million tonnes. Highest SOC content and stocks were recorded in steep slopes in tea and coffee plantations due to dense biomass cover and adoption of soil and water conservation measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data were analyzed to study the vegetation dynamics over different meteorological subdivisions in India for the period 2000–2016. Soil moisture (SM), rainfall (RF), and land use land cover (LULC) data were analyzed to identify the climatic and anthropogenic drivers that cause vegetation changes at the subdivision scale. Principal component analysis and MK (Mann-Kendall) test showed significant greening trend over semi-arid regions of Northwest India (NWI) and South India (SI) while slight browning trend seen over some of the subdivisions in Indo-Gangetic (IG) plains and Western Ghats (WG). It is found that the NDVI has superior correlation with soil moisture compared with rainfall and the croplands (CL) found to have significant increasing trend over the NWI and SI. Increasing trend in soil moisture over the NWI and SI may have contributed to increase in CL area and the greening trend. Over IG plains, the NDVI showed moderate correlation with SM and RF, and the greening trend (browning trend) in some regions can be attributed to increase in natural vegetation mosaic (decrease of CL). The NDVI has shown browning trend over the core monsoon regions of Madhya Pradesh (an increase of barren lands over west MP and decrease of CL over east MP) and Western Ghats (significant decrease of CL over Konkan and Goa). This study revealed that the soil moisture and LULC changes are the major driving factors for the vegetation changes over majority of the subdivisions in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]