Effects of Different Vegetation Types on Soil Microbiological Properties on the Loess Plateau

The re-establishment of natural species-rich health lands on abandoned farmland is one of the main measures in soil erosion control in the Loess Plateau of China. This study was conducted to understand how enzyme activities changed with nutritional properties and microbial biomass in different vegetation types in the loessial gully region of the Loess Plateau. Soil samples were collected in different vegetations which had planted for almost 30 years. For the collected soils, nutritional, microbial and enzymatic properties were determined. The result showed that soil nutritional properties and microbial biomass were enhanced in black locust-amorpha, compared with black locust, but weakened in Chinese pine-amorpha compared with Chinese pine. Besides, soil urease, α-amylase, alkaline phosphatase, catalase, saccharase and cellulase activities in creased with restoration, but decreased polyphenol oxidase. Moreover, urease activity was obviously high in korshinsk peashrub and black locust for the nitrogen fixation of them, and α-amylase was high in Chinese pine for low pH value. However, there still was a certain gap to Chinese arborvitae which was considered to be the climax community in the region. In general, the distance of vegetations to Chinese arborvitae was grassland > black locust > Chinese pine> korshinsk peashrub > Chinese pine-amorpha > black locust-amorpha.

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Effective rainfall seasons for interannual variation in δ13C and tree-ring width in early and late wood of Chinese pine and black locust on the Loess Plateau, China

Journal of Forest Research ◽

10.1007/s10310-009-0111-2 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

pp. 88-94 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Satomi Koretsune ◽

Kenji Fukuda ◽

Zhaoyang Chang ◽

Fuchen Shi ◽

Atsushi Ishida

Keyword(s):

Loess Plateau ◽

Tree Ring ◽

Interannual Variation ◽

Black Locust ◽

Ring Width ◽

Effective Rainfall ◽

Tree Ring Width ◽

The Loess Plateau ◽

Chinese Pine ◽

Late Wood

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Non-structural carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus between black locust and chinese pine plantations along a precipitation gradient on the Loess Plateau, China

Trees ◽

10.1007/s00468-018-1676-1 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 32 (3) ◽

pp. 835-846 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Yang Cao ◽

Yanan Li ◽

Yunming Chen

Keyword(s):

Loess Plateau ◽

Black Locust ◽

Pine Plantations ◽

Precipitation Gradient ◽

The Loess Plateau ◽

Nitrogen And Phosphorus ◽

Chinese Pine ◽

Structural Carbon

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Identification of the important environmental factors influencing natural vegetation succession following cropland abandonment on the Loess Plateau, China

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.10349 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

pp. e10349

Author(s):

Zhenguo Zhang ◽

Mingming Wang ◽

Jikai Liu ◽

Xinwei Li

Keyword(s):

Loess Plateau ◽

Correspondence Analysis ◽

Classification Tree ◽

Detrended Correspondence Analysis ◽

Vegetation Succession ◽

Natural Vegetation ◽

Vegetation Types ◽

The Loess Plateau ◽

Cropland Abandonment

Identification of typical vegetation succession types and their important influencing factors is an important prerequisite to implement differential vegetation and soil management after land abandonment on the Loess Plateau, China. However, there is no reported study specifically on the identification of vegetation types and their important factors as well as the thresholds of the important factors for classification of the vegetation types, based on the medium- to long-term succession of natural vegetation after cropland abandonment. We collected vegetation and soil data on the natural vegetation with the longest 60-year-old forest communities that developed after cropland abandonment and analyzed the data using two-way indicator species analysis, detrended correspondence analysis, direct canonical correspondence analysis and classification tree model. The vegetation communities were classified into five distinct vegetation types, including Artemisia scoparia, Lespedeza davurica and Stipa bungeana, Artemisia giraldii pamp, Sophora viciifolia, Quercus liaotungensis and Biota orientalis. The years after cropland abandonment and soil C/N were further identified as important factors determining the types of vegetation. Likewise, it was observed that most of the investigated soil nutrient variables and soil texture-related variables improved with the vegetation succession while soil water in the surface layers showed a decreasing trend. These findings may provide an ecological basis for site-specific management of vegetation types after cropland abandonment in the medium-long term on the Loess Plateau. Our results encourage further exploration of vegetation succession and their important factors based on longer periods of vegetation succession after cropland abandonment under more soil and climatic conditions on the mountainous areas as the Loess Plateau.

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