TY - JOUR
T1 - Soil net nitrogen transformation rates are co-determined by multiple factors during the landscape evolution in Horqin Sandy Land
AU - Lv, Peng
AU - Sun, Shanshan
AU - Medina-Roldán, Eduardo
AU - Zhao, Shenglong
AU - Hu, Ya
AU - Guo, Aixia
AU - Zuo, Xiaoan
N1 - Funding Information:
Authors thank all the members of Naiman Desertification Research Station and Urat Desert-grassland Research Station, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), for their help in field work. This paper was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41571106 , 41622103 ), National Key Research and Development Plan (No. 2016YFC0500506), and Youth Innovation Promotion Association, CAS (No. 1100000036 ).
Funding Information:
Authors thank all the members of Naiman Desertification Research Station and Urat Desert-grassland Research Station, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), for their help in field work. This paper was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No. 41571106, 41622103), National Key Research and Development Plan (No. 2016YFC0500506), and Youth Innovation Promotion Association, CAS (No. 1100000036).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2021/11
Y1 - 2021/11
N2 - Vegetation restoration affects soil N cycling, which in turn strongly affects ecosystem functions, such as plant productivity and N availability. The soil N availability is a major limiting factor for restoring vegetation in semiarid grasslands and affects landscape evolution. However, few studies have focused on how landscape evolution caused by vegetation restoration affects soil N availability and transformation in semiarid sandy grasslands. Here, we conducted a 5-year field experiment from 2015 to 2019 to evaluate the growth season (May–August) changes in soil inorganic N pools and net N transformation rates along a landscape evolution gradient caused by vegetation restoration: mobile dunes, semi-fixed dunes, fixed dunes, and dune grasslands. We examined the relationship between climate factors, vegetation characteristics, soil properties, and soil net N transformation rates in different landscape types through multivariate analyses. The landscape type, sampling time, interannual variation, and their interactive effects significantly affected the soil inorganic N pool and net N transformation rate. Soil nitrate N concentration accounted for 68% of the total inorganic N, and soil nitrification dominated the soil N transformation during landscape evolution. Redundancy analysis revealed that the changes in net N nitrification and mineralization rates during the growing season were closely correlated with climate factors, vegetation characteristics, and soil properties. Variation partitioning analysis showed that the soil net N transformation rate during the growing season was mainly affected by soil properties, whereas soil net N transformation in August for all years was mainly affected by climate factors. These results suggest that soil N availability and transformation during landscape evolution caused by vegetation restoration were co-determined by climatic factors, vegetation characteristics, and soil properties. Therefore, long-term field monitoring should be considered to improve our exploration of soil N transformation changes and their underlying mechanisms in semiarid grassland ecosystems.
AB - Vegetation restoration affects soil N cycling, which in turn strongly affects ecosystem functions, such as plant productivity and N availability. The soil N availability is a major limiting factor for restoring vegetation in semiarid grasslands and affects landscape evolution. However, few studies have focused on how landscape evolution caused by vegetation restoration affects soil N availability and transformation in semiarid sandy grasslands. Here, we conducted a 5-year field experiment from 2015 to 2019 to evaluate the growth season (May–August) changes in soil inorganic N pools and net N transformation rates along a landscape evolution gradient caused by vegetation restoration: mobile dunes, semi-fixed dunes, fixed dunes, and dune grasslands. We examined the relationship between climate factors, vegetation characteristics, soil properties, and soil net N transformation rates in different landscape types through multivariate analyses. The landscape type, sampling time, interannual variation, and their interactive effects significantly affected the soil inorganic N pool and net N transformation rate. Soil nitrate N concentration accounted for 68% of the total inorganic N, and soil nitrification dominated the soil N transformation during landscape evolution. Redundancy analysis revealed that the changes in net N nitrification and mineralization rates during the growing season were closely correlated with climate factors, vegetation characteristics, and soil properties. Variation partitioning analysis showed that the soil net N transformation rate during the growing season was mainly affected by soil properties, whereas soil net N transformation in August for all years was mainly affected by climate factors. These results suggest that soil N availability and transformation during landscape evolution caused by vegetation restoration were co-determined by climatic factors, vegetation characteristics, and soil properties. Therefore, long-term field monitoring should be considered to improve our exploration of soil N transformation changes and their underlying mechanisms in semiarid grassland ecosystems.
KW - Annual variation
KW - Landscape evolution
KW - Landscape type
KW - Net N transformation
KW - Sampling time
KW - Soil inorganic N
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85109505285&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.catena.2021.105576
DO - 10.1016/j.catena.2021.105576
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85109505285
SN - 0341-8162
VL - 206
JO - Catena
JF - Catena
M1 - 105576
ER -