Consecutive soybean (Glycine max) planting and covering improve acidified tea garden soil

Abstract

Planting soybeans (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) in tea gardens decreased soil pH in theory but increased it in practice. This controversy was addressed in this study by treating the tea garden soil consecutively with different parts of a soybean cover crop: aboveground soybean (ASB) parts, underground soybean (USB) root residues, and the whole soybean (WSB) plants. In comparison with the control, the soil pH increased significantly after the third ASB and WSB treatments, but there was no significant change in the soil pH in the USB treatment. Concordantly, the soil exchangeable acidity decreased significantly and the soil exchangeable bases increased significantly in the ASB and WSB treatments. The exchangeable acidity increased in the USB treatment, but the amount of the increased acidity was less than that of the increased bases in the ASB treatment, resulting in a net increase in the exchangeable bases in the WSB treatment. Soybean planting and covering also increased the microbial richness and abundance significantly, which led to significantly more soil organic matters. Exchangeable K+ and Mg2+, and soil organic matters played significantly positive roles and exchangeable Al3+ played negative roles in improving soil pH. Our data suggest that consecutive plantings of soybean cover crop increase the pH of the acidified tea garden soil.

Geochemical Characteristics and Factors of Transfer and Accumulation of Rare Earth Elements in Rock-Soil-Tea of the Mengku Tea Region in Yunnan Province, China

“…Weathering facilitates the hydrolysis of Ce 4+ , where it remains in situ. With increasing plantation time of tea, the soil will gradually acidify [43,44]. In an acidic soil environment, H + will promote the complexation of Ce 4+ , resulting in enrichment of Ce in soil [42,45].…”

Acidification Induce Chemcial and Microbial Variation in Tea Plantation Soils And Bacterial Degradion Of The Key Acidifying Phenolic Acids

“…In the 1960s, the soil pH of tea plantations in different countries was generally between 5.0 and 6.0. By the 1970s and 1980s, the soils of tea plantations in various countries showed different degrees of acidification, especially by the mid-1980s, when the soil pH value dropped to 4.0-5.0, with the acidification of tea plantations in Japan being particularly serious (Li et al, 2016;Gao et al, 2021).…”