ABSTRACT
Alluvial soils across northern Indian states represent one of the most fertile and biologically dynamic landscapes on the Earth. Formed through centuries of sediment deposition by the Ganga, Yamuna, Brahmaputra, and their tributaries, these soils sustain dense agricultural systems, diverse vegetation and complex microbial communities. This review examines microbial niches across the North Indian alluvial plains, emphasizing ecological patterns, nutrient cycling, and adaptive strategies of microbial taxa under varied physicochemical conditions. It synthesizes data from studies across Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, and Delhi to explore how edaphic factors such as texture, moisture, organic carbon, pH, and salinity shape microbial composition and activity. The article highlights microbial guilds involved in nitrogen fixation, phosphorus solubilization, organic matter decomposition, and stress tolerance, with case studies linking soil microbiomes to crop productivity. Climate change, anthropogenic pollution, and agrochemical use are analyzed as major pressures altering microbial resilience and soil health. The review concludes with an integrated model for sustainable management of microbial resources in alluvial agroecosystems, advocating for molecular-level monitoring, biotechnological applications, and restoration practices.
AUTHOR AFFILIATIONS
CITATION
REFERENCES
License: Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third-party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. Visit for more details http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.