Long-term impacts of land-use change on dynamics of tropical soil carbon and nitrogen pools

Article type: Research Article

Authors: YANG, Jing-cheng | HUANG, Jian-hui | PAN, Qing-min | TANG, Jian-wei | HAN, Xing-guo

Affiliations: Laboratory of Quantitative Vegetation Ecology, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China | Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla 666303, China

Note: [] Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: Land-use changes, especially the conversion of native forest vegetation to cropland and plantations in tropical region, can alter soil C and N pools and N availability for plant uptake. Deforestation, followed by shifting cultivation and establishment of rubber tree plantation, is a common land-use change in Xishuangbanna, southwest China. However the influence of this kind of land-use change on soil C and N dynamics in this region remains poorly understood. This study was conducted to assess the effects of land-use change on soil C and N pools. Soil samples were collected on five adjacent plots, which belong to three land-use types including secondary forest-an acuminate banana (Musa itinerans) secondary forest and a male bamboo (Dendrocalamus membranaceae) secondary forest, shifting cultivation, and rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis (H. B. K.) Muell. Arg.) plantation (one plot is 3-year-old, and another is 7-year-old). We measured soil bulk density (BP), pH value, moisture content and concentrations of soil organic carbon (SOC), total soil nitrogen (TSN), and inorganic N(NO^-_3-N and NH_4^+-N) at 0–3, 3–20, 20–40 and 40–60 cm depths, and calculated C and N pools in 0–20, 20–40, 40–60, and 0–60 cm soil layers. Compared with the adjacent secondary forests, shifting cultivation and establishment of rubber tree plantations resulted in significant decline in concentrations and stocks of SOC and TSN in 0–20 and 0–60 cm soil layers, and increase in pH and bulk density at 0–3, 3–20, and 20–40 cm depths. Soil moisture content decreased only in 0–20 cm surface soils in shifting cultivation and plantations. The dynamics of mineral N was much more complex, which had different trends among depths and ecosystems. Compared with the secondary forests, SOC stocks in 0–20 cm surface soils in shifting cultivation and rubber tree plantations (3-year-old plantation and 7-year-old plantation) decreased by 34.0%, 33%, and 23%; and TSN stocks decreased by 32.2%, 20.4%, and 20.4%, respectively, whereas the decreases of SOC and TSN stocks in 0–60 cm soil layers were much less. The results indicated that C and N losses were mainly occurred in 0–20 cm surface soil, followed by 20–40 cm layer.

Keywords: soil organic carbon (SOC), total soil nitrogen (TSN), inorganic nitrogen, land-use change, tropical soil, Xishuangbana

Journal: Journal of Environmental Sciences, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 256-261, 2004