Changes in soil nitrogen availability due to stand development and management practices on semi‐arid sandy lands, in northern China

Chen, F. S.; Zeng, De‐Hui; Fahey, Timothy J.

doi:10.1002/ldr.924

Cited by 13 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 41 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…On the other hand, the lower response of vegetation in sandy land to highly variable precipitation is explained by low vegetation density and substrates with high evaporation potential, such as mobile sand dunes, sandy loam and other sandy soils. In addition, shrubs with high tolerance to water stress are common in desert and desert steppe areas (Paruelo et al, 1999), making these ecosystems respond more readily to nutrients rather than water (Vitousek et al, 1991;Bai et al, 2008;Chen et al, 2009).…”

Section: Climatic Driver Of Vegetation Cover Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human induced dryland degradation in Ordos Plateau, China, revealed by multilevel statistical modeling of normalized difference vegetation index and rainfall time-series

et al. 2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Land degradation causes serious environmental problems in many regions of the world, and although it can be effectively assessed and monitored using a time series of rainfall and a normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) from remotely-sensed imagery, dividing human-induced land degradation from vegetation dynamics due to climate change is not a trivial task. This paper presented a multilevel statistical modeling of the NDVI-rainfall relationship to detect human-induced land degradation at local and landscape scales in the Ordos Plateau of Inner Mongolia, China, and recognized that anthropogenic activities result in either positive (land restoration and re-vegetation) or negative (degradation) trends. Linear regressions were used to assess the accuracy of the multilevel statistical model. The results show that: (1) land restoration was the dominant process in the Ordos Plateau between 1998 and 2012; (2) the effect of the statistical removal of precipitation revealed areas of human-induced land degradation and improvement, the latter reflecting successful restoration projects and changes in land management in many parts of the Ordos; (3) compared to a simple linear regression, multilevel statistical modeling could be used to analyze the relationship between the NDVI and rainfall and improve the accuracy of detecting the effect of human activities. Additional factors should be included when analyzing the NDVI-rainfall relationship and detecting human-induced loss of vegetation cover in drylands to improve the accuracy of the approach and eliminate some observed non-significant residual trends.

show abstract

Section: Climatic Driver Of Vegetation Cover Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human induced dryland degradation in Ordos Plateau, China, revealed by multilevel statistical modeling of normalized difference vegetation index and rainfall time-series

et al. 2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…As a result, shifting sand land gradually evolves into semi-fixed or fixed sand land. Apparently, there is a distinct increasing gradient of soil nutrient availability along shifting, semi-fixed and fixed sand lands (Chen et al, 2009). In this paper, we reported the results of a field study in which we examined leaf nutrient resorption of A. halodendron inhabiting shifting, semi-fixed and fixed sand dune habitats during the three consecutive years (2007)(2008)(2009) in Horqin Sandy Land, North China.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

N and P resorption in a pioneer shrub (Artemisia halodendron) inhabiting severely desertified lands of Northern China

Chen

Mao

et al. 2013

J. Arid Land

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Nutrient resorption is an important conservation mechanism for plants to overcome nutrient limitation in the less fertile area of desertified land. In the semi-arid Horqin Sandy Land of Northern China, the shrub Artemisia halodendron usually colonizes into the bare ground of severely desertified land as a pioneer species. It is, therefore, expected that A. halodendron will be less dependent on current nutrient uptake through efficient and proficient resorption of nutrients. In this study, we found that averaged nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentrations in senesced leaves significantly varied from 12.3 and 1.2 mg/g in the shifting sand dune to 15.9 and 1.9 mg/g in the fixed sand dune, respectively, suggesting that foliar N and P resorption of A. halodendron were more proficient in the shifting sand dune. In particular, positive relationships between nutrient concentrations in senesced leaves and soil nutrient availability indicate that A. halodendron in infertile habitats is more likely to manage with a low level of nutrients in senesced leaves, giving this species an advantage in infertile soil. Moreover, foliar N-and P-resorption efficiencies and proficiencies showed limited inter-annual variability although annual precipitation varied greatly among 2007-2009. However, N and P resorption of A. halodendron were not more efficient and proficient than those previously reported for other shrubs, indicating that the pioneer shrub in sand dune environments does not rely more heavily than other plants on the process of resorption to conserve nutrients. Incomplete resorption of nutrients in A. halodendron suggests that senesced-leaf fall would return litter with high quality to the soil, and thereby would indirectly improve soil nutrient availability. The restoration of desertified land, therefore, may be accelerated after A. halodendron pioneers into shifting sand dunes.

show abstract

“…Soil N availability is a limiting factor for plant growth in sandy grasslands (Chen et al, ). Our study showed that cultivation of alfalfa resulted in the highest ANPP.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The experimental site was established and maintained by the Institute of Sand Land Improvement and Utilization in Liaoning Province, China. The mean annual temperature is 7.3°C, and the mean annual precipitation is 450 mm, with a lowest and highest recorded annual precipitation of 224.8 and 661.3 mm, respectively (Chen, Zeng, & Fahey, ). The altitude of the study site is 226.5 m asl.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sediment addition and legume cultivation result in sustainable, long‐term increases in ecosystem functions of sandy grasslands

Lü²,

Zhang

et al. 2019

Land Degrad Dev

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Desertification of sandy grasslands is an increasing problem, with serious negative impacts on ecosystem functions. Sandy grasslands are fragile with low ecosystem productivity mainly because of the sandy soil structure with low water and nutrient holding capacities and especially low levels of nitrogen. Here, we evaluate the long‐term impacts of sediment addition from a local reservoir, and grass and legume cultivation (artificial grasslands) on a sandy grassland in eastern Inner Mongolia, China. The results showed that even after 32 years, sediment addition had improved soil structure significantly, that is, increasing of silt and clay contents, soil bulk density, and water holding capacity. As the result of improved soil structure, ecosystem functions, including aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) and soil carbon, nitrogen (N), and phosphorus storage, increased significantly. Net C, N, and P sequestration increased even after accounting for the sediment addition, due, at least partially, to the greater plant biomass trapping large quantities of wind‐blown dust. Plant cultivation, especially the addition of a legume, further increased ANPP significantly, that is, the cultivation of Leymus chinensis and the legume Medicago sativa increased ANPP 6.99 and 44.62 times, respectively. Our study highlights that improvements in soil structure and cultivation with legume species can increased substantially the productivity of sandy grasslands and that the initial increases in grass biomass promoted the sequestration of wind‐blown dust, which helped sustain the increases in productivity.

show abstract

Changes in soil nitrogen availability due to stand development and management practices on semi‐arid sandy lands, in northern China

Cited by 13 publications

References 41 publications

Human induced dryland degradation in Ordos Plateau, China, revealed by multilevel statistical modeling of normalized difference vegetation index and rainfall time-series

Human induced dryland degradation in Ordos Plateau, China, revealed by multilevel statistical modeling of normalized difference vegetation index and rainfall time-series

N and P resorption in a pioneer shrub (Artemisia halodendron) inhabiting severely desertified lands of Northern China

Sediment addition and legume cultivation result in sustainable, long‐term increases in ecosystem functions of sandy grasslands

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About