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Long-term fertilization increases soil nutrient accumulations but decreases biological activity in navel orange orchards of subtropical China

  • 2015 International Symposium on Forest Soils
  • Published:
Journal of Soils and Sediments Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

With its high economic benefits, navel orange (Citrus sinensis) has been widely planted and fertilizer has been increasingly applied in the subtropical China in the last 30 years. Comprehensive assessments are needed to explore the long-term fertilization impacts on soil chemical and biological properties in the navel orange orchards.

Materials and methods

Through a large number of soil and leaf samples from the young, middle-aged, and mature navel orange orchards, this study examined the impacts of stand age (corresponding to the fertilization year using compound chemical fertilizer) on seasonal variations in major soil properties and leaf nutrients in the subtropical China.

Results and discussion

Soil total nitrogen (N) and mineral N were significantly higher in the middle-aged and mature orchards than in the young orchard. Total phosphorus (P), available P, labile P, slow P, occluded P, weathered mineral P, total exactable P, and residual P generally increased with fertilization years (P < 0.05), and the increasing percentages for soil P fractions were much higher than those for N variables. The total N and P use efficiencies (plant uptake/soil input) were 20–34 and 10–15 %, respectively. Soil microbial biomass, invertase, urease, and acid phosphatase activities showed significant seasonal variations and decreased with fertilization years. Leaf N concentration significantly decreased with fertilization years, but no difference was found for P.

Conclusions

Soil self-fertilization was impeded, and less fertilizer amount should be applied especially in the older navel orange orchards since N and P accumulations do not increase leaf nutrients but worsen soil biological quality.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31160107 & 31260199) and Jiangxi Provincial Department of Science and Technology (2012BAB204005 and 20153BCB22008). We thank Dr. De-Hui Zeng and Guang-Sheng Chen for manuscript improvement, Peng-Fei Liao, Yi-Zhen Liu, and Zhe-Xia Zhao for their field work and soil analyses, and David Duncan for English improvement.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Collaborative Innovation Center of Jiangxi Typical Trees Cultivation and Utilization, College of Forestry, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, 330045, China

    Song-Ze Wan, Han-Jiao Gu, Qing-Pei Yang, Xiang-Min Fang & Fu-Sheng Chen

  2. Management School of Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330031, China

    Xiao-Fei Hu

  3. Department of Botany, Panjab University Chandigarh, Chandigarh, 160014, India

    Anand Narain Singh

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  1. Song-Ze Wan
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  2. Han-Jiao Gu
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Correspondence to Fu-Sheng Chen.

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Wan, SZ., Gu, HJ., Yang, QP. et al. Long-term fertilization increases soil nutrient accumulations but decreases biological activity in navel orange orchards of subtropical China. J Soils Sediments 17, 2346–2356 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-016-1439-9

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