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Degraded vegetation and wind erosion influence soil carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus accumulation in sandy grasslands

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Abstract

A field study was conducted in a semi-arid sand land ecosystem in eastern Inner Mongolia, China, to explore the mechanisms underlying how human-induced environmental degradation in sandy grasslands influences ecosystem plant diversity, productivity, soil erodibility, and soil carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) accumulation and storage. We investigated (1) C, N and P accumulation to 20cm soil depth; (2) C, N and P storage in plant litter, above- and below-ground biomass; and (3) the rate of surface wind erosion measured as the amount of aeolian soil accumulating in the traps and C, N and P output from the topsoil removal due to wind erosion during the erosive season in four habitats of differently degraded sandy grasslands. Environmental degradation has resulted in significant and differential reductions in soil C, N and P accumulation within the top 20cm soil layer across habitats. On average, the most severely degraded sandy grassland stored 474%, 198% and 56% less soil C, N and P, while the severely degraded sandy grassland stored 215%, 121% and 27% less soil C, N and P and the moderately degraded sandy grassland stored 111%, 60% and 17% less soil C, N and P than did the lightly degraded sandy grassland. Two key variables associated with reduced soil C, N and P accumulation in sandy grasslands as a result of environmental degradation are reduced plant litter and above- and below-ground biomass production (i.e. less plant C, N and P inputs in the soil) and increased C, N and P output from the removal of nutrient-rich topsoil layers resulted from increased rates of wind erosion. This study suggests a complex mechanism by which environmental degradation influences soil C, N and P accumulation and dynamics via its significant effects on ecosystem plant diversity, productivity and soil erodibility.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all technicians who assisted in the field investigation. This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (40771068), the CAS/SAFEA International Partnership Program for Creative Research Teams (CXTD-Z2005-2-4) and the State Key Basic Research and Development Plan (2009CB421302). We would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions that greatly improved the manuscript.

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  1. Linze Inland River Basin Research Station, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 260 Donggang West Road, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Feng-Rui Li, Wen-Zhi Zhao, Ji-Liang Liu & Zhi-Gang Huang

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  1. Feng-Rui Li
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  2. Wen-Zhi Zhao
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  3. Ji-Liang Liu
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  4. Zhi-Gang Huang
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Correspondence to Feng-Rui Li.

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Responsible Editor: Wim van der Putten.

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Li, FR., Zhao, WZ., Liu, JL. et al. Degraded vegetation and wind erosion influence soil carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus accumulation in sandy grasslands. Plant Soil 317, 79–92 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-008-9789-8

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