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“Fertile island” effects of Tamarix chinensis Lour. on soil N and P stoichiometry in the coastal wetland of Laizhou Bay, China

  • Soils, Sec 2 • Global Change, Environ Risk Assess, Sustainable Land Use • Research Article
  • Published:
Journal of Soils and Sediments Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

As a useful comprehensive index for reflecting nutrient cycling in soils, nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) stoichiometry is subject to influences of many external environmental and biological factors. Studies on such influences were limited, and the influential mechanism remains unclear. The purpose of this research is to investigate soil N and P stoichiometric variations and analyze “fertile island” effects of Tamarix chinensis Lour. (T. chinensis) in the coastal wetland of Laizhou Bay in China.

Materials and methods

Soil samples beneath clusters and communities of T. chinensis were collected respectively in July 2012. Amounts of ammonium, nitrate, and available phosphorus in the soil samples were measured through the corresponding standard methods for material measuring.

Results and discussion

In general, there were significant vertical variations in soil N and P stoichiometry beneath clusters and communities of T. chinensis. A downtrend was observed for N and P contents with the increase in soil depth. On the contrary, the N/P ratio revealed a trend of going up first and then dropping off along with the increase of the soil depth. Comparatively, the horizontal variations in the soil N and P stoichiometry beneath a single cluster of T. chinensis were greater in the topsoil than those in the subsoil. The N and P contents gradually decreased from the canopy center to the outside. On the contrary, an opposite trend was found for the N/P ratio. For the horizontal variations beneath T. chinensis communities, there were no significant differences for either N and P contents or N/P ratios.

Conclusions

Similar to the ecosystems in arid and semi-arid areas, vegetations in many semi-humid areas could also form fertile islands and exert significant influences on the soil nutrient cycle. The formation of fertile islands beneath a single cluster of T. chinensis could have significant influence on soil N and P stoichiometry. Under the influence of fertile islands beneath T. chinensis, the limiting element of the biogeochemical processes in the coastal wetland of Laizhou Bay might change from N to P. However, the influences of fertile island effects on soil N and P stoichiometry beneath T. chinensis communities were relatively small, illustrating that the influences of fertile island effects was not significant at the community level. Thus, the impacts of environmental factors on soil N and P stoichiometry might be greater than that of the fertile island effects in the wetland on a larger scale.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41201023 and 31370702), the National Key Technology R&D Program of China (2011BAC02B01), and the National Science Foundation for Innovative Research Group (No. 51121003).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Qiangqiang Rong, Yanpeng Cai, Zhenzhen Zhao & Wencong Yue

  2. Shandong Key Laboratory of Eco-Environmental Science for the Yellow River Delta, Binzhou University, Binzhou, 256603, China

    Jingtao Liu, Zhaohua Lu & Jiangbao Xia

  3. Institute for Energy, Environment and Sustainable Communities, University of Regina, 120, 2 Research Drive, Regina, Saskatchewan, S4S 7H9, Canada

    Yanpeng Cai

  4. Institute of Restoration Ecology, China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing, 100083, China

    Zhaohua Lu

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  1. Qiangqiang Rong
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  4. Zhaohua Lu
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Correspondence to Yanpeng Cai.

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Responsible editor: Hailong Wang

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Rong, Q., Liu, J., Cai, Y. et al. “Fertile island” effects of Tamarix chinensis Lour. on soil N and P stoichiometry in the coastal wetland of Laizhou Bay, China. J Soils Sediments 16, 864–877 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-015-1296-y

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