Changes in soil organic carbon and its active fractions in different desertification stages of alpine-cold grassland in the eastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

Yufu, Hu; ShuangLong, Jiang; Yuan, Shu; Deng, Lei; Xiao, Haihua; Shu, Xiang-Yang; Chen, Guangdeng; Xia, Jianrong

doi:10.1007/s12665-017-6684-8

Cited by 15 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…This site is cold subhumid monsoon climate characterised by a short spring and autumn, a long winter without a summer. The solar radiation is strong with ~6 194 (MJ/m 2 )/year; the duration of the sunshine is 2 417 h/year; (Hu et al 2017a). The annual mean temperature is 0.7-1.1 °C, and the annual average wind speed is 1.6-2.4 m/s (Hu et al 2017a).…”

Section: Study Site and Land Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in soil organic carbon and its fractions under grassland reclamation in alpine-cold soils, China

Wu¹,

Yufu²,

Zhang³

et al. 2022

Soil & Water Res.

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Grasslands are the main land use types in China, but their reclamation into croplands can influence the terrestrial carbon and, consequently, impact the global carbon balance. The long-term reclamation of alpine-cold grasslands to croplands are expected to decrease the soil organic carbon (SOC) and its fractions. Here, we conducted an in situ systematic study to measure the SOC and its fraction in soils sampled in an alpine-cold grassland with a gradient of cultivation history from 0 to 40 years. The SOC and its fractions significantly decreased after reclamation (P < 0.05), and the changes in the 0–20 cm soil layer were the greatest among the three sampling depths. After 40 years of reclamation, the SOC content and storage at 0–20 cm decreased by 74 and 60%, respectively. The decreases in the soil labile carbon fractions were more rapid and apparent than the SOC, especially the particular organic carbon (POC), which decreased by 82%. The soil humus carbon fractions also decreased, particularly the humic acid carbon (HAC), which decreased by 81%. The reduction rates of SOC and its fractions gradually decreased with an increase in the cultivation history. Besides, the ratios of the optical densities or absorbances of humic acid (HA) and fulvic acid (FA) solutions at 465 and 665 nm (E<sub>4</sub>/E<sub>6</sub> ratios) and the hue coefficient (Δlog K values), which is the logarithm disparity between the 400 and 600 nm absorbance of the HA (FA) substance, in the solution gradually decreased, indicating that the quality of the soil humus decreased. The reclamation significantly decreased the SOC and its fractions in the alpine-cold soils, which should not be underestimated in the impact on the terrestrial carbon cycles and balance in the long run.

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Section: Study Site and Land Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in soil organic carbon and its fractions under grassland reclamation in alpine-cold soils, China

Wu¹,

Yufu²,

Zhang³

et al. 2022

Soil & Water Res.

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“…The geographical location of this area is between 26°00 -39°47 N and 73°19 -104°47 E. The total area of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is approximately 2.96 × 10 6 km 2 , accounting for 26.8% of the mainland area of China. The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is the most widely distributed plateau in China and the plateau with the highest altitude in the world [47]. The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau spans six provinces in China, namely, Tibet, Qinghai, Yunnan, Sichuan, Gansu, and Xinjiang, and has an average altitude of more than 4000 m [48].…”

Section: A Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Response of the Water Conservation Function to Vegetation Dynamics in the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau Based on MODIS Products

Zhou

Yan

et al. 2020

IEEE J. Sel. Top. Appl. Earth Observations Remote Sensing

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With the increasing demand for global water resources and general deterioration of the ecological environment of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, changes to the water conservation functions of ecosystems and the impact mechanisms have attracted great attention. Currently, the research on water conservation has mainly focused on a single biome type, in particular, forests. Few studies explore the differences in water conservation functions of different biome types. Research on this topic mostly utilizes field investigations and sample plot settings to explore the differences in water conservation capacity of a small number of tree species, but these methods are limited in time and space. Therefore, this study uses MODIS products to evaluate the water conservation function of different biome types in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Dynamic monitoring of the vegetation and water conservation capacity in the study area and research on the responses of the water conservation functions of different biome types were conducted. The results indicate that the vegetation of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau increased slightly from 2000 to 2015; however, due to the dual influence of climate and topographic factors, the water conservation capacity showed a slight decline. The water conservation service function mainly comes from grassland ecosystems, which are closely related to vegetation density and biome types. Therefore, to greatly improve the water conservation service function of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, the management and planting of vegetation should be conducted according to the optimal vegetation coverage area, vegetation quantities and biome types.

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“…As one of the global eco‐environmental problems, desertification is the process of land degradation characterized by sandstorm activity under the influence of climate change and human activities in arid, semiarid and subhumid‐arid regions (Hu et al, ; Zhao et al, ). In terms of grassland desertification, desertification is always referred as the change in the native vegetation and community structure.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…During this desertification process, an important indicator is the change in soil characteristics. Previous studies have investigated changes in soil characteristics along a desertification gradient (Hu et al, , ; Shu et al, ; Wan et al, ). With an increasing degree of desertification, changes in soil physicochemical properties and biological characteristics have profound impacts on the growth, development and distribution of vegetation (Sun & Wang, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A previous study reported that the main microbial composition of deserted soils was bacteria, followed by Actinomycetes and fungi, and the biomass of bacteria, fungi, Actinomycetes and the total biomass of microorganisms increased first and then decreased along the desertification gradient (He et al, ). Another study showed that the active fractions of soil organic carbon, particularly soil microbial biomass carbon, decreased sharply in the early stages of the desertification process, which can be used as sensitive biotic indicators of desertification (Hu et al, ). Further analysis showed that the dominant factors driving the change in soil microbial biomass were soil porosity and water content during the desertification process in a Maqu alpine meadow (He et al, ), while soil microbial beta‐diversity was linked with compositional variation in aboveground plant biomass in a semiarid grassland (Li et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Soil properties rather than plant production strongly impact soil bacterial community diversity along a desertification gradient on the Tibetan Plateau

Zong

Shi

2020

Grassland Science

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Grassland desertification is an important environmental issue that has detrimental impacts on the sustainable development of grasslands and human residential environments. Soil microbial community structure might dramatically change during desertification processes because microorganisms are one of the major drivers of ecological processes through their interactions with plants and soil. However, knowledge on the driving factors of microbial diversity changes during the desertification process in alpine grasslands is still lacking. Using a spatial sequence instead of a time successional sequence method, five desertification gradients in alpine steppe were chosen to investigate the changes in soil properties, plants and microbial communities during grassland desertification and to determine the factors that drive microbial community changes. Community coverage, species diversity indices and aboveground biomass gradually decreased from potential to severely heavy desertification gradients (HDs), while species richness and belowground biomass showed unimodal patterns (p < .05). Soil water content and total nitrogen showed gradual decreasing trends, while soil bulk density and gravel content showed opposite trends (p < .05). In addition, both the Shannon diversity index and the Chao1 richness index of soil bacteria increased gradually. The structural equation model showed that of the factors, soil total nitrogen (82.3% of total effect) and soil bulk density (41.4% of total effect) were the most important soil factors affecting soil bacterial diversity. However, community aboveground (43.4% of total effect) and belowground production (13.9% of total effect) were not the primary factors affecting soil microbial diversity. This result suggests that soil microbial diversity during grassland desertification is primarily driven by changes in soil properties, and the effects of vegetation composition and production are relatively small. These findings contribute to the mechanistic understanding of soil microbial diversity by linking changes in soil properties and plant production during desertification processes in alpine ecosystems.

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Changes in soil organic carbon and its active fractions in different desertification stages of alpine-cold grassland in the eastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

Cited by 15 publications

References 46 publications

Changes in soil organic carbon and its fractions under grassland reclamation in alpine-cold soils, China

Changes in soil organic carbon and its fractions under grassland reclamation in alpine-cold soils, China

Response of the Water Conservation Function to Vegetation Dynamics in the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau Based on MODIS Products

Soil properties rather than plant production strongly impact soil bacterial community diversity along a desertification gradient on the Tibetan Plateau

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