Ecological Stoichiometry Characteristics and Physical-chemical Properties of Soils at Different Latitudes on the Loess Plateau
The element stoichiometry has been successfully used in indicating community succession and vegetation restoration in recent years.Information about the stoichiometry of soil C,N,and P at different latitudes can help to understand the relationship between vegetation restoration and soil quality,and it is also beneficial to the processes and functions of ecosystem.However,the soil stoichiometry characteristics at different latitudes are poorly documented on the Loess Plateau.To explore the effects of latitudes on ecological stoichiometry of soils in the north of Shaanxi Province on the Loess Plateau,34 soil sites were sampled from five vegetation zones.Soil organic carbon,total nitrogen,total phosphorus and other properties were analyzed in all soil samples.The results indicated that soil C:N,C:P,N:P ratios varied with latitudes in the range of 8.79-22.00,9.91-35.92 and 1.06-3.25 in the 0-5 cm soil layer and in range of 8.02-21.03,7.36-24.01 and 0.82-2.22 in the 5-20 cm soil layer,respectively.Soil C:N ratio did not change much with latitudes.Soil C:P ratio and N:P ratio decreased significantly with the increase of latitude.Soil organic carbon,total nitrogen and total phosphorus were quite consistent with each other in the regular spatial distribution,showing the same trend of declining with the rising of latitude in the studied areas,and their contents were higher in the 0-5 cm soil layer than those in the 5-20 cm soil layer.There were significant positive correlations between soil organic carbon,total nitrogen and total phosphorus.Both soil C:N ratio and C:P ratio were significantly positively correlated to the soil N:P ratio,while the soil C:N ratio was significantly negatively correlated to the soil C:P ratio.Phosphorus was lower in the high latitude areas than that in the low latitude areas.The soil nutrients,such as total nitrogen,phosphorus and soil organic carbon,gradually accumulated with the vegetation restoration,and the contents of these nutrients were significantly higher in forest soil than that in desert and sandy areas.It seemed that the vegetation at higher latitude is more easily limited by nitrogen than that at lower latitude.
the Loess Plateausoilnutrientsecological stoichiometrylatitudes
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
维普
