Abstract
Soil erosion and nutrient loss are important environmental and ecological problems in the Dianchi watershed in southwestern China. Woodlands—the primary land type in the Dianchi watershed—play an important ecological role in controlling soil and water loss. In this study, we compared soil erosion and loss of total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) in woodlands of different ages, i.e., young forest, medium forest, and near-mature forest, at the Dongda River catchment in south-western Dianchi watershed. Furthermore, changes in stoichiometries in soil were analyzed. The average degree of erosion of each forest age stage was below moderate. Based on the non-arable soil erosion modulus models of 137Cs and 210Pbex, the soil erosion rates decreased gradually with the increasing forest age. The forest age affected soil nutrient distribution and loss. The losses of TOC and TP gradually decreased, while the losses of TN first increased and then decreased with the growth of forest age. TOC, TN, and TP were enriched in the topsoil. Forest age affected soil stoichiometry and soil nutrient supply level. In general, the forest can effectively reduce soil erosion and nutrient loss in the red soil area with the forest age increasing.
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Data availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful to the professor Yang Hao’s research team of Nanjing Normal University for the help with the isotope test.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, grant number 41703099; the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province, China, grant number ZR2020ME251; and the Major Research Plan of the Shandong Natural Science Foundation, grant number ZR2020ZD19.
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Writing—original draft and software: Wenxian Sun. Project administration and funding acquisition: Xiaoyin Niu, Peiling Gao, and Aiju Liu. Writing—review and editing: Xiaoyin Niu. Methodology: Yongping Wang. Supervision: Xianwei Yin. Investigation Haowei Teng. Supervision: Peiling Gao. Conceptualization: Aiju Liu.
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Sun, W., Niu, X., Wang, Y. et al. Effects of forest age on soil erosion and nutrient loss in Dianchi watershed, China. Environ Monit Assess 195, 340 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-10920-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-10920-8