IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i17p9845-d627440.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Characteristics of Soil C, N, and P Stoichiometry as Affected by Land Use and Slope Position in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, Southwest China

Author

Listed:
  • Mengdie Feng

    (College of Resources and Environment, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China)

  • Dengyu Zhang

    (College of Resources and Environment, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China)

  • Binghui He

    (College of Resources and Environment, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China)

  • Ke Liang

    (College of Resources and Environment, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China)

  • Peidong Xi

    (College of Resources and Environment, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China)

  • Yunfei Bi

    (College of Resources and Environment, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China)

  • Yingying Huang

    (College of Resources and Environment, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China)

  • Dongxin Liu

    (College of Resources and Environment, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China)

  • Tianyang Li

    (College of Resources and Environment, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China)

Abstract

Land use change and slope position are commonly identified as the key factors affecting the soil organic carbon (C), total nitrogen (N), and total phosphorus (P) traits in distinct ecological scales. However, the directions of these effects are still unclear in some fragile terrestrial ecosystems. This study aimed to determine the characteristics of soil C, N, and P concentrations and stoichiometry as affected by different land uses and slope positions in a representative purple soil hillslope in Three Gorges Reservoir Area (TGRA), China, which is experiencing severe soil erosion and non-point source pollution. A total of 108 soil samples were collected from secondary forest, orchard plantation, and cropland on the upper, middle, and lower slopes, respectively. Soil C, N, and P concentrations and their stoichiometric ratios were determined. The results showed that soil C concentration was not affected by land use, while soil N and P concentrations were both the highest in orchard plantation rather than in secondary forest and cropland, resulting in the lowest C:N, C:P, and N:P ratios in the orchard plantation. Soil C and N concentrations synchronously decreased from upper slope to the lower slope, and soil P concentration was not markedly different among slope positions. This also caused the insignificant difference in soil C:N ratio and the remarkably lowest C:P and N:P ratios on the lower slope. There were significant interactive effects of land use and slope position on the study soil variables except soil P concentration. Our results highlight the effects of land use and slope position on soil C, N, and P traits and point to the decoupling of linkages between soil P and soil C as well as N due to the severe soil erosion and overuse of fertilization in the TGRA.

Suggested Citation

  • Mengdie Feng & Dengyu Zhang & Binghui He & Ke Liang & Peidong Xi & Yunfei Bi & Yingying Huang & Dongxin Liu & Tianyang Li, 2021. "Characteristics of Soil C, N, and P Stoichiometry as Affected by Land Use and Slope Position in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, Southwest China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-13, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:17:p:9845-:d:627440
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/17/9845/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/17/9845/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jia, Haiyan & Lei, Alin & Lei, Junshan & Ye, Min & Zhao, Jingzhu, 2007. "Effects of hydrological processes on nitrogen loss in purple soil," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 89(1-2), pages 89-97, April.
    2. Marcel G. A. van der Heijden & John N. Klironomos & Margot Ursic & Peter Moutoglis & Ruth Streitwolf-Engel & Thomas Boller & Andres Wiemken & Ian R. Sanders, 1998. "Mycorrhizal fungal diversity determines plant biodiversity, ecosystem variability and productivity," Nature, Nature, vol. 396(6706), pages 69-72, November.
    3. James J. Elser & William F. Fagan & Robert F. Denno & Dean R. Dobberfuhl & Ayoola Folarin & Andrea Huberty & Sebastian Interlandi & Susan S. Kilham & Edward McCauley & Kimberly L. Schulz & Evan H. Sie, 2000. "Nutritional constraints in terrestrial and freshwater food webs," Nature, Nature, vol. 408(6812), pages 578-580, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hailiang Li & M. James C. Crabbe & Haikui Chen, 2020. "History and Trends in Ecological Stoichiometry Research from 1992 to 2019: A Scientometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-21, October.
    2. Laura A Schreeg & W John Kress & David L Erickson & Nathan G Swenson, 2010. "Phylogenetic Analysis of Local-Scale Tree Soil Associations in a Lowland Moist Tropical Forest," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(10), pages 1-10, October.
    3. Law, Tony & Zhang, Weitao & Zhao, Jingyang & Arhonditsis, George B., 2009. "Structural changes in lake functioning induced from nutrient loading and climate variability," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 220(7), pages 979-997.
    4. Castillo, Marco & Petrie, Ragan & Torero, Maximo & Vesterlund, Lise, 2013. "Gender differences in bargaining outcomes: A field experiment on discrimination," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 35-48.
    5. Stech, Harlan & Peckham, Bruce & Pastor, John, 2012. "Enrichment in a general class of stoichiometric producer–consumer population growth models," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 81(3), pages 210-222.
    6. Matthew Chekwube Enebe & Mariana Erasmus, 2023. "Symbiosis—A Perspective on the Effects of Host Traits and Environmental Parameters in Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal Richness, Colonization and Ecological Functions," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-28, September.
    7. Marcin Dębowski & Marta Kisielewska & Joanna Kazimierowicz & Aleksandra Rudnicka & Magda Dudek & Zdzisława Romanowska-Duda & Marcin Zieliński, 2020. "The effects of Microalgae Biomass Co-Substrate on Biogas Production from the Common Agricultural Biogas Plants Feedstock," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-13, May.
    8. Yang Ma & Chunlai Zhang & Hui Yang & Yikai Xu & Yan Chen & Jing Ning, 2023. "The Characteristics of Soil C, N and P and Stoichiometric Ratios as Affected by Land-Use in a Karst Area, Southwest China," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-17, May.
    9. Luyun Chen & Yongheng Gao, 2022. "Global Climate Change Effects on Soil Microbial Biomass Stoichiometry in Alpine Ecosystems," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-16, September.
    10. T E Anne Cotton & Alex J Dumbrell & Thorunn Helgason, 2014. "What Goes in Must Come out: Testing for Biases in Molecular Analysis of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal Communities," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(10), pages 1-7, October.
    11. Josep Penuelas & Tamás Krisztin & Michael Obersteiner & Florian Huber & Hannes Winner & Ivan A. Janssens & Philippe Ciais & Jordi Sardans, 2020. "Country-Level Relationships of the Human Intake of N and P, Animal and Vegetable Food, and Alcoholic Beverages with Cancer and Life Expectancy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-15, October.
    12. Vítězslav Vlček & Miroslav Pohanka, 2020. "Glomalin - an interesting protein part of the soil organic matter," Soil and Water Research, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 15(2), pages 67-74.
    13. Agata Klimkowska & Klara Goldstein & Tomasz Wyszomirski & Łukasz Kozub & Mateusz Wilk & Camiel Aggenbach & Jan P Bakker & Heinrich Belting & Boudewijn Beltman & Volker Blüml & Yzaak De Vries & Beate G, 2019. "Are we restoring functional fens? – The outcomes of restoration projects in fens re-analysed with plant functional traits," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(4), pages 1-22, April.
    14. Zhiwei Cao & Xi Fang & Wenhua Xiang & Pifeng Lei & Changhui Peng, 2020. "The Vertical Differences in the Change Rates and Controlling Factors of Soil Organic Carbon and Total Nitrogen along Vegetation Restoration in a Subtropical Area of China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-17, August.
    15. Sakai, Kenshi & Brown, Patrick H. & Rosenstock, Todd S. & Upadhyaya, Shrinivasa K. & Hastings, Alan, 2022. "Spatial phase synchronisation of pistachio alternate bearing: Common-noise-induced synchronisation of coupled chaotic oscillators," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 165(P2).
    16. Jie Zhang & Yaojun Liu & Taihui Zheng & Xiaomin Zhao & Hongguang Liu & Yongfen Zhang, 2021. "Nutrient and Stoichiometric Characteristics of Aggregates in a Sloping Farmland Area under Different Tillage Practices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-19, January.
    17. Elser, James J. & Loladze, Irakli & Peace, Angela L. & Kuang, Yang, 2012. "Lotka re-loaded: Modeling trophic interactions under stoichiometric constraints," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 245(C), pages 3-11.
    18. Juan An & Fenli Zheng & Mathias Römkens & Guifang Li & Qingsen Yang & Leilei Wen & Bin Wang, 2013. "The role of soil surface water regimes and raindrop impact on hillslope soil erosion and nutrient losses," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 67(2), pages 411-430, June.
    19. Xi Wei & Wei Song & Ya Shao & Xiangwen Cai, 2022. "Progress of Ecological Restoration Research Based on Bibliometric Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-21, December.
    20. Gowdy, John & Seidl, Irmi, 2004. "Economic man and selfish genes: the implications of group selection for economic valuation and policy," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 343-358, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:17:p:9845-:d:627440. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.