Assessment of Reclamation Treatments of Abandoned Farmland in an Arid Region of China

Abstract

Reclamation of abandoned farmland is crucial to a sustainable agriculture in arid regions. This study aims to evaluate the impact of different reclamation treatments on abandoned salinized farmland. We investigated four artificial reclamation treatments, continuous cotton (CC), continuous alfalfa (CA), tree-wheat intercropping (TW) and trees (TS), which were conducted in 2011-2012 in the Manasi River Basin of Xinjiang Province, China. Soil nutrient, microorganism and enzyme activity were examined in comparison with natural succession (CK) in an integrated analysis on soil fertility improvement and soil salinization control with these reclamations. Results indicate that the four artificial reclamation treatments are more effective approaches than natural restoration to reclaim abandoned farmland. TW and CA significantly increased soil nutrient content compared to CK. CC reduced soil salinity to the lowest level among all treatments. TW significantly enhanced soil enzyme activity. All four artificial reclamations increased soil microbial populations and soil microbial biomass carbon. TW and CA had the greatest overall optimal effects among the four treatments in terms of the ecological outcomes. If both economic benefits and ecological effects are considered, TW would be the best reclamation mode. The findings from this study will assist in selecting a feasible method for reclamation of abandoned farmland for sustainable agriculture in arid regions.

Reclamation of desert land to different land‐use types changes soil bacterial community composition in a desert‐oasis ecotone

“…Harvesting of crops in the CL and GL reduces the organic matter added to the soil and tillage practice in these land‐use types might have contributed insubstantial amount of organic matter decomposition leading to have lower SOC in those land‐use types as compared to the SL (Merino, Omil, Fonturbel, Vega, & Balboa, 2016; Wu et al, 2018). In a similar ecosystem, Yang et al (2016) observed an increase in SOC and nutrient contents after reclamation. However, our result shows that the increase in SOC was much greater (by 301.8%) after six decades of reclamation as compared with that of increase (by 115.5%) after 3 years of reclamation.…”

“…The ecosystems of these reclamation ecotones remain fragile over a long period of time after reclamation. The improvement of soil quality and productivity as a result of these land‐use changes from desert to irrigated cropland have been well studied (Ferreira, Leite, Araújo, & Eisenhauer, 2016; Tosi et al, 2016; Yang et al, 2016). However, soil physical and chemical characteristics and their effects on microbial community change may be different in desert‐oasis ecotones from any other ecosystems.…”

Effects of Vegetation Restoration on Soil Bacterial Communities, Enzyme Activities, and Nutrients of Reconstructed Soil in a Mining Area on the Loess Plateau, China

“…For instance, Wang et al [33] reported that vegetation restoration plays a major role in promoting and recovering the fragile ecological environment, especially in mining areas on the Loess Plateau. Yang et al [34] observed that reclamation can significantly improve soil nutrient content. In this study, different vegetation types and coverage of the four sampling sites led to differences in soil nutrient contents and enzyme activities.…”

“…Under the influence of a series of physical and biological processes, the soil under shrubs in arid and semi-arid areas has a higher soil nutrient content, known as the "fertility islands effect" [36,37]. Soil available nutrients are closely related to soil enzyme activities because soil enzyme activities directly affect soil nutrient mineralization and the soil nutrient cycle changes with the change of mineralization [34]. Land use changes, such as vegetation restoration, may potentially change the abundance of ecological resources by changing their dynamics and conversion rate [38].…”

Rhizosphere fungal community, soil physicochemical properties, understorey vegetation and their relationship during post-coal mining reclamation in East Kalimantan, Indonesia

“…high salts and high clay contents). Studies have shown significant interactions between soil and vegetation during a reclamation process, such that soil and vegetation are constantly evolving and developing (Frezquez et al, 1988;Meliani et al 2012;Yang et al 2016). Rousk et al (2009) describe fungi and bacteria are the two groups that dominate the microbial decomposer community, and, crudely define that they share the function of decomposing organic matter in the soil, indicating that there is a strong potential for interaction.…”