Guwahati: A new study led by researchers from Nagaland University has found that seasonal climate variations significantly influence soil microbial communities and biological activity in Assam’s tea plantations, offering fresh insights that could help make tea cultivation more sustainable and resilient to climate change.
The study, conducted in collaboration with researchers from other institutes across the country, examined how seasonal changes affected soil microbes and enzyme activities across five representative tea estates in Jorhat between 2016 and 2019.
Published in the journal Environments, the research explored the links between climate variability, soil health and microbial activity, an area that has received limited attention despite the growing impact of changing weather patterns on tea production and quality in Northeast India.
Tea productivity and quality have increasingly come under pressure from climate variability.
Soil microorganisms and enzymes play a vital role in maintaining soil fertility and nutrient cycling, but little has been known about how changing climatic conditions influence these biological processes in the region’s tea plantations.
To bridge this knowledge gap, the researchers carried out a multi-year assessment of seasonal bacterial and fungal communities, along with associated soil enzyme activities.
The study combined microbiological, biochemical and climatic data with advanced statistical tools, including probability distribution fitting, correlation analysis, hierarchical cluster analysis and principal component analysis (PCA), to understand ecological variability and soil biological responses under different climatic conditions.
The researchers found strong positive relationships between microbial abundance and soil enzyme activity, indicating that climatic conditions directly influence the biological health of tea-growing soils.
More than 80% of the variation in the biological data was explained by the first three principal components, underscoring the robustness of the statistical analysis.
The study also found that hierarchical cluster analysis successfully grouped tea estates according to their microbial and enzymatic characteristics, reinforcing the role of soil microbial communities and enzyme activity as sensitive indicators of environmental change and sustainable tea production.
According to the researchers, the findings could help improve soil health monitoring using biological indicators, support climate-resilient tea production systems, and enable growers to optimise nutrient management and cultivation practices.
The study could also provide scientific evidence for policymakers and agricultural extension agencies working to strengthen the long-term sustainability of India’s tea sector.
Congratulating the research team, Nagaland University Vice-Chancellor Prof Jagadish Kumar Patnaik said the study provided valuable insights into how climate variability influences soil microbial communities and biological health in Assam’s tea plantations.
“Such research is vital for developing sustainable and climate-resilient tea cultivation practices in North-East India. This study also reinforces Nagaland University’s commitment to advancing research that addresses regional environmental challenges and supports sustainable agricultural development,” he said.
Co-author of the study, Prof Tanmoy Karak of the Department of Soil Science, School of Agricultural Sciences, Nagaland University, said the researchers sought to identify seasonal conditions that favour beneficial microbial communities and understand how climatic variables regulate soil biological processes.
“We attempted to determine seasonal thresholds that favour beneficial microbial communities and also understand how climatic variables regulate soil biological processes. The study establishes soil microbial communities and enzyme activities as sensitive indicators of environmental change and sustainable tea production,” Karak said.
The researchers said the findings would help scientists better understand seasonal variations in soil bacterial and fungal populations, provide evidence to support sustainable tea cultivation under changing climatic conditions, and contribute to the development of climate-resilient strategies for India’s tea industry.
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