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Urban–rural gradients in soil nutrients beneath Chinese pine (Pinus tabulaeformis Carr.) are affected by land-use

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Abstract

Urban–rural gradients of soil nutrients may be affected by many factors including land use, vegetation cover, and management. In this study, focusing on one vegetation type (Chinese pine, Pinus tabulaeformis Carr.) to exclude the effects of vegetation cover, we investigated soil nutrients in three land-use types (neighborhoods, parks and roadsides) along urban–rural gradients in Beijing, China, to explore the differences in soil nutrients across land-use types and the changes of soil nutrients along the urban–rural gradient. Soil nutrients (organic carbon, calcium and magnesium) are significantly higher in neighborhoods and parks than in roadsides, while soil nutrients (except for magnesium) showed no significant differences between in neighborhoods and in parks. Interestingly, soil moisture, nitrate-nitrogen, calcium, magnesium, and available phosphorus and potassium all decreased along urban–rural gradients in parks, while only soil available phosphorus did so in neighborhoods and none soil variables studied showed this trend in roadsides. Thus, land use plays an important role in modifying urban–rural gradients of soil nutrients.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFE0127700) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71533005 and 41571053). We sincerely thank Donald M. Waller for his suggestion of revision and polishing language. Also, we thank the editors and reviewers for their valuable comments, which improved the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China

    Yuebo Su, Bowen Cui, Zhiyun Ouyang & Xiaoke Wang

  2. Shenzhen Academy of Environmental Sciences, Shenzhen, 518001, China

    Yuebo Su

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Bowen Cui, Zhiyun Ouyang & Xiaoke Wang

  4. Beijing Urban Ecosystem Research Station, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China

    Zhiyun Ouyang & Xiaoke Wang

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  1. Yuebo Su
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Correspondence to Xiaoke Wang.

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Su, Y., Cui, B., Ouyang, Z. et al. Urban–rural gradients in soil nutrients beneath Chinese pine (Pinus tabulaeformis Carr.) are affected by land-use. Urban Ecosyst 25, 955–966 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-022-01205-y

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