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Stocks of soil carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus in coniferous forests on the Qilian Mountains: spatial trends and drivers

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Abstract

This work is based on an analysis of the spatial trends and drivers of soil C, N, and P contents and their stocks in relation to latitude, longitude, and altitude. For this purpose, the coniferous forests of Qinghai spruce (Picea crassifolia (Pc)) and Qilian juniper (Juniperus przewalskii (Jp)) within the Qilian Mountains in northwest China were selected as the objects of research. It was found that at the regional scale, the C and N contents in soil from the Pc forests were 1.34 and 1.17 folds higher than those of the Jp forests, respectively, whereas the P content was 0.92 fold lower than that of the Jp forests. Interestingly, the stock of soil C and N in the two forests was consistent, indicating an equivalent role of both in maintaining the regional C and N stocks. Secondly, the soil C and N stocks of Jp were the highest at a low altitude (< 2800 m), which indicated that the Jp forest trees retained high amounts of C and N at an altitude < 2800 m. In addition, the stocks of soil C and N correlated negatively with the latitude and positively with the longitude (P < 0.05). A partial redundancy analysis and random forests regression models showed that the stocks of soil C, N, and P were primarily controlled by the soil properties, particularly the bulk density and nutrient contents. Overall, these results provide insights into the effects of soil and terrain factors on soil C, N, and P stock, thereby providing a foundation for targeted forest conservation and rehabilitation in the Qilian Mountains in the future.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Prof. Jianjun Cao for his helpful comments and suggestions for improving the manuscript. We are very grateful to all the field investigators who made up a group of >10 participants. The authors would like to thank all the reviewers who participated in the review, as well as MJEditor (www.mjeditor.com) for providing English editing services during the preparation of this manuscript.

Funding

This work was funded by the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. XDA20100102), the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program (STEP), Grant No. 2019QZKK0301, the National Key Research & Development (R&D) Program of China (No. 2019YFC0507401), the Open Foundation of MOE Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental System, Lanzhou University and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (lzujbky-2022-kb04), and the Northwest Normal University doctoral research fund (202203101501).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Geography and Environmental Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, 730070, China

    Jianguo Liu

  2. MOE Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems, College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Xiaohua Gou, Jie Liu, Haijiang Yang & Dingcai Yin

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  1. Jianguo Liu
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  2. Xiaohua Gou
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Contributions

JL and XG conceived the ideas and designed methodology; JL, JL, HY, and DY collected the data; JL analyzed the data; JL and XG led the writing of the manuscript. All authors gave final approval for publication.

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Correspondence to Xiaohua Gou.

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Liu, J., Gou, X., Liu, J. et al. Stocks of soil carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus in coniferous forests on the Qilian Mountains: spatial trends and drivers. Eur J Forest Res 142, 1113–1123 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-023-01580-x

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