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
Careful soil management is important for the soil quality and productivity improvement of the reclaimed coastal tidal flat saline land in northern Jiangsu Province, China. Farmyard manure( FYM) and mulch applications, which affect soil characteristics and plant significantly, are regard as an effective pattern of saline land improvement. As a conventional management in the study region, FYM and mulch are used for the amendment of the new reclaimed tidal flat regularly, but little is known about their effects on soil physical properties functioning. A study was conducted on a typical coastal tidal flat saline land, which was reclaimed in 2005, to evaluate the effects of FYM, polyethylene film mulch(PM), straw mulch(SM), FYM combined with PM(FYM+PM), FYM combined with SM(FYM+SM), on soil hydraulic properties and soil mechanical impedance. CK represented conventional cultivation in study area without FYM and mulch application and served as a control. The experiment, laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications, was studied in Huanghaiyuan Farm, which specialized in the agricultural utilization for coastal tidal flat. Result showed that capillary water holding capacity(CHC), saturated water content(SWC), saturated hydraulic conductivity( Ks) and bulk density(BD), cone index(CI) were affected significantly by the FYM and mulch application, especially in the 0-10 cm soil layer. FYM and mulch management increased CHC, SWC and Ks over all soil depth in the order of FYM+SM>FYM+PM>FYM>SM>PM>CK. With the contrary sequence, BD and CI decreased significantly; however, FYM and mulch application affected BD and CI only in the upper soil layers. CHC, SWC and Ks decreased significantly with the increasing of soil depth, BD and CI, and a significant liner equation was found between CHC, SWC, Ks and BD, CI. With the highest CHC(38.15%), SWC(39.55%), Ks(6.00 mm h-1) and the lowest BD(1.26 g cm-3) and CI(2.71 MPa), the combined management of FYM and SM was recommend to be an effective method for the meliorat
