scholarly journals The Effects of Vegetation Restoration and Season On Soil Enzyme Activity and Microbial Communities in Karst Rocky Desertification Area

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhang Guo ◽  
Chunyan Zheng ◽  
Zhu Chen ◽  
Jin Wang ◽  
Yanghua Yu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Enzyme Activity ◽  
Microbial Community ◽  
Microbial Biomass ◽  
Soil Properties ◽  
Southwest China ◽  
Vegetation Type ◽  
Soil Enzyme ◽  
Vegetation Types ◽  
Karst Rocky Desertification ◽  
Rocky Desertification

Abstract Aims The process of karst rocky desertification has been closely related to improper land use in southwest China. Now this habitat is the subject of an important ecological restoration project. However, the changes in soil properties and microbial characteristics in response to this vegetation restoration remain poorly understood.Methods We investigated four vegetation types, including dragon fruit, Chinese pepper, walnut teak, with corn as a control, in southwest China, in 2019. We measured the impacts of these vegetation types on soil properties and microbial biomass, enzyme activity, and microbial community composition (using high-throughput sequencing technology).Results The different vegetation types had significantly different impacts on soil exchangeable Ca2+, soil organic carbon and available nutrients. The vegetation types also significantly affected microbial biomass. Soil enzyme activity, including b-1,4-glucosidase, b-1,4-N-acetylglucosaminidase, alkaline phosphatase, and catalase, were significantly different among vegetation types. All vegetation types were dominated by the bacterial phyla Acidobacteria, Proteobacteria, and Actinobacteria and the fungal phylum Ascomycota, except for corn which was dominated by the fungal phylum Mucoromycota. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) showed that the vegetation type exhibited different microbial b-diversity, especially in winter. The vegetation type, season, and soil properties collectively explained 46% and 59% of soil bacterial and fungal community composition, respectively. The bacterial-fungal interactions under the six vegetation types were distinctly different between summer and winter.Conclusions Compared with traditional corn, the restoration of natural vegetation partially reversed KRD by improving soil properties, increasing microbial biomass, and differentiating the microbial community structures in the different vegetation types.

Recovery Dynamics of Vegetation and Soil Properties in Karst Rocky Desertification Areas in Guizhou, China

2012 ◽  
Vol 518-523 ◽  
pp. 4532-4544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hong Yan Liu ◽  
Fang Liu
Keyword(s):  
Soil Fertility ◽  
Soil Properties ◽  
Vegetation Structure ◽  
Vegetation Recovery ◽  
Native Forest ◽  
Forming Process ◽  
Karst Rocky Desertification ◽  
Rocky Desertification ◽  
Available Nitrogen ◽  
Dynamics Of Vegetation

Abstract. Dynamics of vegetation and soil properties responses to vegetation recovery in the selected 72 Karst desertification sites in Guizhou, China were studied. Six typical and representative vegetation types along a chronosequence of vegetation recovery (corn land, sparse grass, regeneration forest, shrub, grass and shrub, and native forest with 0, 3-5, 10-15, 20-30, 30-40, and >100 yrs, respectively) were selected for the study of the plant species, vegetation features as well as soil physical & chemical properties in order to assess interaction between soil properties and vegetation structure. It was found that vegetation species had dry-resistant characteristics because of their extensive exposure to the basement rocks and thinness soil. Grass community was always coarse grass, shrub was generally dominated by vines, thorn bushes and tree species were almost leather-like, single and mini-type leaf plants. Factor analysis showed that the 3 factors, soil fertility, pH and clay, explain 67.97 % of total variance among the 19 soil property parameters. Soil fertility changed significantly effects included the increasing of soil organic matter, total and available nitrogen, humic acid, CEC, fuvic acid, exchange Ca, porosity and total P but decreasing bulk density. This trend was followed by enhancing of bio-enrichment capacity along the chronosequence of vegetation recovering process. Soil pH had no significant correlation with the vegetation recovery stages because it was determined by soil forming process and characteristic of parent materials. The factor clay only decreased slightly in the recovery stages. Cluster analysis indicated that vegetation structure could develop within short time under anthropocentric interfering, but soil fertility only accumulated with annual litter decomposing. We can conclude that recovery of vegetation community structure proceeded restoration of soil function.

scholarly journals The challenge and future of rocky desertification control in karst areas in southwest China

Solid Earth ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Y. Zhang ◽  
M. H. Dai ◽  
L. C. Wang ◽  
C. F. Zeng ◽  
W. C. Su
Keyword(s):  
Southwest China ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Dynamic Monitoring ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Karst Rocky Desertification ◽  
Ecological Compensation ◽  
Rocky Desertification ◽  
Desertification Control

Abstract. Karst rocky desertification occurs after vegetation deteriorates as a result of intensive land use, which leads to severe water loss and soil erosion and exposes basement rocks, creating a rocky landscape. Karst rocky desertification is found in humid areas in southwest China, the region most seriously affected by rocky desertification in the world. In order to promote ecological restoration and help peasants out of poverty, the Chinese government carried out the first phase of a rocky desertification control project from 2006 to 2015, which initially contained the expansion of rocky desertification. Currently, the Chinese government is prepared to implement the second phase of the rocky desertification control project, and therefore it is essential to summarise the lessons learned over the last 10 years of the first phase. In this paper, we analyse the driving social and economic factors behind rocky desertification, summarise the scientific research on rocky desertification in the region, and finally identify the main problems facing rocky desertification control. In addition, we put forward several policy suggestions that take into account the perspective of local peasants, scientific research, and China's economic development and urbanisation process. These suggestions include promoting the non-agriculturalization of household livelihoods, improving ecological compensation, strengthening the evaluation of rocky desertification control and dynamic monitoring, and strengthening research on key ecological function recovery technologies and supporting technologies.

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