Abstract
In this study, we analyzed the change characteristics of plants and soil about different vegetation duration of restoration in the loess hilly and scientifically evaluated the impact of vegetation restoration on the accumulation, distribution, and relationship of soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil total nitrogen (STN) sequestrations. In our research, the spatial and temporal intergeneration method was used to investigate the effects of different vegetation duration of restoration on SOC and STN stocks in the loess hilly area. Soil samples were collected in the soil depths ranging from 0 to 40 cm from five grassland sites abandoned for 0, 5, 10, 15, and 20 years. The 0-40-cm SOC and STN contents and stocks showed a nonlinear increase during the restoration period, with a decreasing trend followed by an increasing trend, both reached a maximum in 10 years, and the SOC and STN stocks were 34.63 Mg ha−1 and 2.91 Mg ha−1. The 0–40-cm SOC and STN sequestrations varied from − 5.39 to 6.58 Mg ha−1 and − 0.23 to 0.88 Mg ha−1 respectively. The 0–40-cm SOC and STN sequestration rates varied from − 1.08 to 0.94 Mg ha−1 year−1 and − 0.03 to 0.07 Mg ha−1 year−1. Overall, natural revegetation 0~20 years greatly promoted SOC and STN sequestrations through the accumulation of soil nutrient contents, above-ground biomass (AGB), below-ground biomass (BGB), and litter biomass (LB). The soil enzyme activity and soil microbe number were the important factors driving changes in SOC and STN. These results are expected to facilitate future research on SOC and STN to enhance the management of revegetation of unabandoned farmland in the loess hilly region of China in response to global climate change.
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Acknowledgements
We thank editors and anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions on the manuscript.
Funding
This research was funded by the Ningxia Science and Technology Innovation Leader Training Project (No. KJT2018003), the Ningxia Key Research and Development Program (No.2021BEG02009, No.2020BBF02003), Ningxia Natural Science Foundation Program (No.2023AAC03043), and the First-class Discipline Construction Project (Grassland Science Discipline) for the high school in Ningxia (No. NXYLXK2017A01).
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Nie, M., Shen, Y., Ma, H. et al. Changes of soil C and N stocks and sequestrations during vegetation succession of abandoned farmland in the loess hilly, China. J Soil Sci Plant Nutr (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-023-01516-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-023-01516-9