Land use practice significantly affects soil properties. Soil is a major sink for atmospheric carbon, and soil organic carbon (SOC) is considered as an essential indicator of soil quality. The objective of this study was to assess the effects of N and P applied to Suaeda salsa on biomass production, SOC concentration, labile organic carbon (LOC) concentration, SOC pool and carbon management index (CMI) as well as the effect of the land use practice on soil quality of coastal tidal lands in east coastal region of China. The study provided relevant references for coastal exploitation, tidal land management and related study in other countries and regions. The field experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design, consisting of four N-fertilization rates (0 (N0), 60 (N1), 120 (N2) and 180 kg ha^(-1) (N3)), three P-fertilization rates (0 (P0), 70 (P1) and 105 kg ha^(-1) (P2)) and bare land without vegetation. N and P applied to S. salsa on coastal tidal lands significantly affected biomass production (above-ground biomass and roots), bulk density (ρ_b), available N and P, SOC, LOC, SOC pool and CMI. Using statistical analysis, significantly interactions in N and P were observed for biomass production and the dominant factor for S. salsa production was N in continuous 2-yr experiments. There were no significant interactions between N and P for SOC concentration, LOC concentration and SOC pool. However, significant interaction was obtained for CMI at the 0-20 cm depth and N played a dominant role in the variation of CMI. There were significant improvements for soil measured attributes and parameters, which suggested that increasing the rates of N and P significantly decreased ρ_bat the 0-20 cm depth and increased available N and P, SOC, LOC, SOC pool as well as CMI at both the 0-20 and 20-40 cm depth, respectively. By correlation analysis, there were significantly positive correlations between biomass (above- ground biomass and roots) and SOC as well as LOC in 2010 and 2011 across all soil depth, respec
Rice-wheat rotation and poplar afforestation are two typical land use types in the coastal reclaimed flatlands of eastern China.This study investigated two rice-wheat rotation lands(one reclaimed from 1995 to 2004 and cultivated since 2005, RW1, and the other reclaimed from 1975 to 1995 and cultivated since 1996, RW2) and a poplar woodland(reclaimed from 1995 to 2004 and planted in2004, PW1) to determine the effects of land use types and years of cultivation on soil microbial biomass and mineralizable carbon(C) in this coastal salt-affected region. The results showed that the soil in PW1 remained highly salinized, whereas desalinization was observed in RW1. The total organic C(TOC) in the top soil of PW1 and RW1 did not show significant differences, whereas at a soil depth of 20–30 cm, the TOC of RW1 was approximately 40%–67% higher than that of PW1. The TOC of 0–30-cm soil in RW2 was approximately 37% higher than that in RW1. Microbial biomass C(MBC) and mineralizable C(MNC) exhibited the trend of RW2 > RW1 > PW1. Sufficient nutrition with more abundant C substrates resulted in higher MBC and MNC, and soil respiration rates were negatively correlated with C/N in RW1 and RW2. Nutrient deficiency and high salinity played key roles in limiting MBC in PW1. These suggested that rice-wheat rotation was more beneficial than poplar afforestation for C accumulation and microbial biomass growth in the coastal salt-affected soils.
JIN WenhuiYANG JingsongYAO RongjiangYU ShipengLIU MeixianXIE Wenping
