scholarly journals Dynamics of Soil Nutrients, Microbial Community Structure, Enzymatic Activity, and Their Relationships along a Chronosequence of Pinus massoniana Plantations

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 376
Author(s):  
Jinwen Pan ◽  
Qiqiang Guo ◽  
Huie Li ◽  
Siqiong Luo ◽  
Yaqin Zhang ◽  
...  

Pinus massoniana is the major afforestation and vegetation restoration tree in southern China, and it plays an important role in the sustainable development of plantations. However, long-term single planting of P. massoniana has resulted in the decline of soil quality and forest productivity, and a soil fertility assessment is urgently needed. We selected P. massoniana plantations of four age stages for plot investigation and sampling to determine the soil physicochemical properties, microbial diversity and composition, and enzyme activities at different soil depths. The results showed that soil total phosphorus (TP) and available phosphorus (AP) decreased with the increase of age, especially low C/N ratio and high C/P and N/P ratio in the 30-year and 36-year stands, leading to P limitation. Meanwhile, the bacterial Shannon index also decreased with the increase of age and was positively correlated with AP, NO3−-N, and pH. However, the fungal Shannon index decreased first and then increased with the increase of age; soil acid phosphatase (S-ACP) and urease activities showed a similar trend. Correlation analysis demonstrated that the increase of total organic carbon (TOC) and total nitrogen (TN) promoted the increase of fungal Shannon index, which was beneficial to the secretion of more enzymes. We found that soil physicochemical properties, microbial diversity, and enzyme activity decreased simultaneously when soil depths increased. Moreover, Acidobacteria and Basidiomycota were the most abundant bacterial and fungal communities, respectively, followed by Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria for bacteria and Ascomycota for fungi, and these microbial taxa were significantly affected by soil water content (SWC), TOC, AP, and C/P. In conclusion, this work reveals the potential correlation among soil physicochemical properties, microbial diversity and composition, and enzyme activities, and revealed potential correlations among them which will help to improve understanding of soil conditions and provide a reference for rational management of soil resources.

PeerJ ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. e11852
Author(s):  
Qian Lyu ◽  
Yi Shen ◽  
Xianwei Li ◽  
Gang Chen ◽  
Dehui Li ◽  
...  

Background Soil and understory vegetation are vital components of forest ecosystems. Identifying the interaction of plantation management to vegetation and soil is crucial for developing sustainable plantation ecosystem management strategies. As one of the main measures of close-to-nature management of forest plantation, few studies have paid attention to the effect of crop tree management on the soil properties and understory vegetation. Methods A 36-year-old Pinus massoniana plantation in Huaying city, Sichuan Province was taken as the research object to analyse the changes in undergrowth plant diversity and soil physicochemical properties under three different crop tree densities (100, 150, and 200 N/ha). Results Our results showed that the contents of available phosphorus, organic matter and hydrolysable nitrogen in the topsoil increased significantly after crop tree management, while content of available potassium decreased. The composition of shrub and herb layer was richer, and the dominant species were obviously replaced after crop tree management. The Shannon–Wiener index and Richness index of shrub layer, and the diversity of herb layer increased significantly after crop tree management. Herb layer diversity indexes and Richness index of shrub layer were closely related to soil organic matter, available phosphorus, hydrolysable nitrogen, available potassium, soil moisture and bulk density. As the main limiting factors for plant growth, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium were closely related to plant diversity and to the distribution of the dominant species. At the initial stage of crop tree management, each treatment significantly improved the soil physicochemical properties and plant diversity of Pinus massoniana plantation, and the comprehensive evaluation was 200 N/ha >100 N/ha >150 N/ha >CK. Compared with other treatments, 200 N/ha had the best effect on improving the undergrowth environment of the Pinus massoniana plantation in the initial stage of crop tree management.


2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nahusenay Abate ◽  
Kibebew Kibret

The study was conducted to investigate the effects of land use, depth and topography on soil physicochemical properties at the Wadla Delanta Massif, northcentral Ethiopia. Four land uses (natural forest, shrub, grazing and cultivated land), three soil depths (0-20, 20-40, 40-60 cm) and three topographic positions (upper, middle and lower) in three replications were considered for this study. A total of 108 composite samples were collected for laboratory analysis. The results show that particle size distribution was affected by the main effects of land use and soil depth; bulk and particle densities, total porosity, organic matter and total nitrogen contents, C:N ratio and available phosphorus were significantly affected by the interaction of land use by soil depth only, whereas, soil pH, electrical conductivity, exchangeable bases, cation exchange capacity, percent base saturation and extractable micronutrients were affected by the interaction effects of the three factors. Highest clay and bulk density were recorded at the bottom layer of the cultivated land soils, while the utmost porosity, organic matter and nitrogen contents, and available phosphorus were recorded at the surface layers of the natural forest land soils. Highest pH was at the bottom layer of the cultivated land at the three topographic positions. Highest exchangeable bases and cation exchange capacity were observed in the bottom layers of soils under the four land use types at the lower topographic position, whilst extractable micronutrients were recorded at the surface layers of the forest land soils at the upper topographic position. In general, most of the measured soil properties were measured better in forest than in other land use soils and the lower topographic positions than the upper and middle ones. Interaction of land use with topography showed negative effects especially on cultivated and grazing land soils in all topographic positions. Therefore, integrated soil fertility management and soil conservation measures are required in all topographic positions to maintain soil physicochemical properties.


Agronomy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 8
Author(s):  
Muhammad Naeem ◽  
Noman Mehboob ◽  
Muhammad Farooq ◽  
Shahid Farooq ◽  
Shahid Hussain ◽  
...  

This two-year study observed the influence of various barley-based cropping systems on soil physicochemical properties, allometric traits and biomass production of barley sown under different tillage systems. Barley was cultivated in different cropping systems (CS), i.e., fallow-barley (fallow-B), maize-barley (maize-B), cotton-barley (cotton-B), mungbean-barley (mungbean-B) and sorghum-barley (sorghum-B) under zero tillage (ZT), minimum tillage (MT), strip tillage (ST), conventional tillage (CT) and bed-sowing (BS). Interaction between different CS and tillage systems (TS) positively influenced soil bulk density (BD), total porosity, available phosphorus (P), ammonical and nitrate nitrogen (NH4-N and NO3-N), available potassium (K), allometric traits and biomass production of barley. The highest soil BD along with lower total porosity were noted in ZT leading to lesser leaf area index (LAI), leaf area duration (LAD), specific leaf area (SLA), crop growth rate (CGR) and net assimilation rate (NAR) of barley. Nonetheless, bed-sown barley produced the highest biomass due to better crop allometry and soil physical conditions. The highest postharvest soil available P, NH4-N, NO3-N, and K were recorded for zero-tilled barley, while BS followed by CT recorded the lowest nutrient contents. Barley in mungbean-B CS with BS produced the highest biomass, while the lowest biomass production was recorded for barely sown in fallow-B cropping system with ZT. In conclusion, barley sown after mungbean (mungbean-B cropping system) with BS seems a pragmatic choice for improving soil fertility and subsequently soil health.


2013 ◽  
Vol 807-809 ◽  
pp. 843-847
Author(s):  
Xu Dong Zhao ◽  
De Gang Zhang ◽  
Li Na Shi ◽  
Yong Shun Yang

The depth variations of soil physicochemical properties in the degraded native grasslands and the artificially restored grasslands were studied in the Three-river headwater areas of Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, China. The results showed: (1) With the increase of the gradient of restoration years, soil water content, total chemical properties, total potassium, phosphorus, available phosphorus and potassium were increased thereafter in the artificial grasslands. (2) With the increase of grassland degradation gradient, soil water content was gradually reduced, and the total N, K, the organic matter didnt gradually reduced also. (3) Both restoration years and degradation degree didnt influence the nutrient distribution in soil. (4) The organic matter, total N and K of degraded grassland were increased by artificial grassland construction. Therefore, artificial grassland construction canbe used as an effective measure of ecological projects in the Three-river headwater area.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 11684
Author(s):  
Li Fan ◽  
Weiping Zhao ◽  
Wendan Feng ◽  
Ping Mo ◽  
Yunlin Zhao ◽  
...  

Soil microorganisms play an important role in regulating a variety of ecological functions. In recent years, the research on ecological restoration after mining has made people more aware of the importance of microbial diversity to ecosystem restoration. The present study investigated the effect of ecological restoration on microbial community structure and its relationship with soil physicochemical properties in the Dabaoshan mining area, China. High throughput sequencing technology was used to analyze and compare the microbial community composition of three types of soil (undamaged area, unrestoration area, and ecological restoration area). The contents of organic carbon, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus were 2.38–12.97 g/kg, 0.39–1.62 g/kg, and 0.99–1.51 g/kg, respectively. In different soil states, undamaged area and ecological restoration area were significantly higher than those in unrestoration area. The results showed that the structure of soil microbial community was significantly correlated with soil physicochemical properties, and formations in the repaired and unrepaired soils were different. Operational Taxonomic Unit (OTU) cluster analysis and diversity index analysis showed that soil microbial community changed at phylum and genus levels. The results showed that at the phylum level, all soil samples contained Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, and actinobacteria. Firmicutes and Proteobacteria of the ecological restoration area (ER1, ER2) were the highest in relative abundance compared with other samples, accounting for more than 45%. Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria were the dominant phylum in the undamaged area (UD), accounting for 32.7% and 22.3%, respectively. It can be seen that soil restoration produced a new dominant population, and Proteobacteria showed an absolute competitive advantage in the mining soil.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Weldemariam Seifu ◽  
Eyasu Elias ◽  
Girmay Gebresamuel

Understanding topography effects and assessing the soil properties in different land use is an essential first step for sustainable soil management. Hence, land use type and altitudinal gradient on selected soil parameters were studied in Ayiba watershed, northern Ethiopia. Thirty composite soil samples were collected from 0 to 30 cm of soil depth under four land use types across three altitudinal gradients and were analyzed for selected soil parameters following the standard procedures. A significant main effect of land use and altitudinal gradient on the content of the soil particles was noted. Results also indicated that the bulk density (BD), total porosity (TP), and Pav of the soil are significantly different ( p  < 0.05) in the watershed because of land use type and altitudinal gradient. Barren land and higher altitude landscapes have the highest BD, and the lowest TP, and grassland and lower altitude landscapes have the lowest BD and high TP. Intensive cultivation accompanied by natural land conversion and erosion due to the rugged landscape nature caused high BD and low TP. Analysis of variance results also shows the significant interaction effect of land use type and altitudinal gradient on EC, SOM, SOC ( p  < 0.001), and pH-water (1:2.5), and TN ( p  < 0.01). The Pearson correlation of SOM with TP, TN, MC, and clay content showed a strong positive relationship. But, SOC, TN, and clay content were negatively correlated with BD. Soils of the study watershed are found in low to optimum rating levels in their selected physicochemical properties. Overall, the results show that land use and topography gradient significantly affected soil physicochemical properties in the study watershed. Therefore, soil management options should focus on scenarios that could improve the soil conditions to enhance crop production on a sustainable basis.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (9) ◽  
pp. 284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shao ◽  
Lai ◽  
Jiang ◽  
Wang ◽  
Hong ◽  
...  

Chinese Cordyceps is a well-known medicinal larva-fungus symbiote distributed in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and adjacent areas. Previous studies have involved its artificial cultivation but commercial cultivation is difficult to perform because the crucial factors triggering the occurrence of Chinese Cordyceps are not quite clear. The occurrence of Chinese Cordyceps is greatly affected by the soil environment, including the soil’s physicochemical and microecological properties. In this study, the effects of these soil properties on the occurrence of Chinese Cordyceps were investigated. The results show that the physicochemical properties, including easily oxidizable organic carbon (EOC), soil organic carbon (SOC), humic acid carbon (HAC), humin carbon (HMC), and pH, might be negatively related to the occurrence of Chinese Cordyceps, and soil water content (SWC) might be positively related. Several soil physicochemical parameters (pH, SOC, HMC, HAC, available potassium (APO), available phosphorus (APH), microbial biomass carbon (MBC), and the ratio of NH4+ to NO3- (NH4+/NO3-)) and microbial properties interact and mix together, which might affect the occurrence of Chinese Cordyceps. Soil microbial community structure was also a possible factor, and a low level of bacterial and fungal diversity was suitable for the occurrence of Chinese Cordyceps. The intra-kingdom network revealed that a closer correlation of the bacterial community might help the occurrence of Chinese Cordyceps, while a closer correlation of the fungal community might suppress it. The inter-kingdom network revealed that the occurrence rate of Chinese Cordyceps might be negatively correlated with the stability of the correlation state of the soil habitat. In conclusion, this study shows that soil physicochemical properties and microbial communities could be greatly related with the occurrence of Chinese Cordyceps. In addition, soil physicochemical properties, the level of bacterial and fungal diversity, and correlations of bacterial and fungal communities should be controlled to a certain level to increase the production of Chinese Cordyceps in artificial cultivation.


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