Soil Degradation and the Decline of Available Nitrogen and Phosphorus in Soils of the Main Forest Types in the Qinling Mountains of China

Abstract

Soil degradation has been reported worldwide. To better understand this degradation, we selected Pinus armandii and Quercus aliena var. acuteserrata forests, and a mixed forest of Q. aliena var. acuteserrata and P. armandii in the Qinling Mountains in China for our permanent plots and conducted three investigations over a 20-year period. We determined the amounts of available nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in the soil to track the trajectory of soil quality and compared these with stand characteristics, topographic and climatic attributes to analyze the strength of each factor in influencing the available N and P in the soil. We found that the soil experienced a severe drop in quality, and that degradation is continuing. Temperature is the most critical factor controlling the soil available N, and species composition is the main factor regulating the soil available P. Given the huge gap in content and the increasing rate of nutrients loss, this reduction in soil quality will likely negatively affect ecosystem sustainability.

Keywords

• soil degradation
• soil available nitrogen
• soil available phosphorus
• temperature
• stand density