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Responses of soil nitrogen, phosphorous and organic matter to vegetation succession on the Loess Plateau of China

Journal of Arid Land volume 7, pages 216–223 (2015)Cite this article

Abstract

Revegetation is a traditional practice widely used for soil protection. We evaluated the effect of natural revegetation succession on soil chemical properties and carbon fractions (particulate organic carbon (POC), humus carbon (HS-C), humic acid carbon (HA-C) and fulvic acid carbon (FA-C)) on the Loess Plateau of China. The vegetation types, in order from the shortest to the longest enclosure duration, were: (a) abandoned overgrazed grassland (AbG3; 3 years); (b) Hierochloe odorata Beauv. (HiO7; 7 years); (c) Thymus mongolicus Ronnm (ThM15; 15 years); (d) Artemisia sacrorum Ledeb (AtS25; 25 years); (e) Stipa bungeana Trin Ledeb (StB36; 36 years) and (f) Stipa grandis P. Smirn (StG56; 56 years). The results showed that the concentrations of soil organic carbon, total nitrogen and available phosphorus increased with the increase of restoration time except for ThM15. The concentration of NH4-N increased in the medium stage (for ThM15 and AtS25) and decreased in the later stage (for StB36 and StG56) of vegetation restoration. However, NO3-N concentration significantly increased in the later stage (for StB36 and StG56). Carbon fractions had a similar increasing trend during natural vegetation restoration. The concentrations of POC, HS-C, FA-C and HA-C accounted for 24.5%–49.1%, 10.6%–15.2%, 5.8%–9.1% and 4.6%–6.1% of total carbon, respectively. For AbG3, the relative changes of POC, HS-C and FA-C were significantly higher than that of total carbon during the process of revegetation restoration. The higher relative increases in POC, HS-C and FA-C confirmed that soil carbon induced by vegetation restoration was sequestrated by higher physical and chemical protection. The increases of soil C fractions could also result in higher ecological function in semiarid grassland ecosystems.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, China

    Man Cheng & ShaoShan An

  2. State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, China

    Man Cheng & ShaoShan An

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  1. Man Cheng
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  2. ShaoShan An
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Correspondence to ShaoShan An.

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Cheng, M., An, S. Responses of soil nitrogen, phosphorous and organic matter to vegetation succession on the Loess Plateau of China. J. Arid Land 7, 216–223 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40333-014-0043-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40333-014-0043-3

Keywords

  • particulate organic carbon
  • humus carbon
  • humic acid carbon
  • fulvic acid carbon
  • carbon fraction
  • natural vegetation succession