Natural succession of grassland on the Loess Plateau of China affects multifractal characteristics of soil particle‐size distribution and soil nutrients

Abstract

Knowledge of the changes of soil properties and soil particle‐size distribution (PSD) is important for quantifying soil quality and dynamics during natural succession. We applied multifractal theory to characterize the PSDs in five soil layers of nine croplands abandoned for less than 1 year, 2, 5, 7, 10, 15, 20, 30 and 35 years and evaluated the changes of soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (total N), total phosphorus (total P), soil texture and multifractal parameters [capacity dimension (D0), entropy dimension (D1), correlation dimension (D2) and Hölder exponent of order zero (α0)] during natural succession on the Loess Plateau of China. Rényi spectra (Dq) and singularity spectra f(α) characterized the PSDs well and sensitively reflected the changes of heterogeneity of the surface soil (0–20 cm) during natural succession. SOC, total N and clay contents and the multifractal parameters increased significantly by the late stage of succession, mostly in the topsoil (0–10 cm). Natural succession thus effectively improved the soil physicochemical properties on the Loess Plateau of China, even though it was time‐consuming. SOC and total N contents decreased with depth throughout the natural succession, but the multifractal parameters were higher in the topsoil only in the late stage. D1 and D2 were strongly and positively correlated with SOC and total N contents in the surface layers and with fine particles in all layers, suggesting that D1 and D2 may be sensitive and practical indices for quantifying changes in soil properties and erosion.

Change in Soil Particle Size Distribution and Erodibility with Latitude and Vegetation Restoration Chronosequence on the Loess Plateau, China

“…In comparison, the erodibility factor decreased with increasing restoration age in certain vegetation zones. These findings reflect those of Sun et al [4]. The decrease in D1/D0 in FSZ with number of years of recovery meant that PSD density declined due to an increase in clay and sand content, which was not only concentrated in areas of silt.…”

“…The soil restoration process improved the soil properties and effectively protected soil from erosion, which greatly affects the particle size distribution (PSD) of soil [4]. PSD is a fundamental physical attribute of soil, affecting the movement of moisture in the soil and soil stability [5].…”

“…Vegetation cover has a positive effect on preventing soil erosion, possibly because it causes direct changes to surface runoff or because it indirectly improves soil infiltration performance and reduces erodibility [15,16]. These positive effects of transformations strongly influence the fraction of fine particles by changing soil conditions [4,17]. Many studies have evaluated how vegetation succession processes affect specific soil properties over time [6,18].…”

Relationship between soil water content and soil particle size on typical slopes of the Loess Plateau during a drought year

“…Existing studies have shown that different kinds of plants might have different influences on soil texture and properties (Cortina and Maestre, 2005;Gu and Luo, 2016;Li et al, 2012). For example, the conversion from cropland to other types of vegetation in the Loess Plateau was more effective for improving soil conditions in deep soil layers (Sun et al 2016b), while studies in the northern part of the Loess Plateau showed that conversion from cropland to shrub or grass land worsened water conditions in the deep soil profile (Zhang et al 2018). In this study, more fine particles were found in shrublands than grasslands, indicating that shrublands were more efficient at trapping the fine sediments, protecting fine soil particles better than grasses (Supplementary 1).…”

Effects of Three Plantation Coniferous Species on Plant-Soil Feedbacks and Soil Physical and Chemical Properties in Semi-Arid Mountain Ecosystems

“…Soil particle-size distribution (PSD) refers to the percentage of each particle size class in the soil, which can re ect the in uence of soil water movement, solute transport and nutrient status, vegetation types on texture and other factors (Sun et al, 2016). Soil texture is divided into clay, silt and sand, which is one of the important physical parameters of soil (Mohammadi & Meskini-Vishikaee 2013;Hu et al, 2011;Xu et al, 2013).…”