The variation in soil water retention of alpine shrub meadow under different degrees of degradation on northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan plateau

NWIPB OpenIR

	The variation in soil water retention of alpine shrub meadow under different degrees of degradation on northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan plateau
	Dai, Licong; Guo, Xiaowei; Ke, Xun; Du, Yangong; Mang, Fawei; Cao, Guangmin
	2020
发表期刊	PLANT AND SOIL
摘要	Background and aims In recent decades, an increasing proportion of alpine shrub meadow has become severely degraded owing to the combined effects of global climate warming and rodent infestation, with significant impacts on soil water retention. The present paper investigates the patterns and controlling factors of soil water retention of alpine shrub meadow under different degrees of degradation, to help inform decisions on the management of degraded alpine shrub meadow. Methods Four degradation stages were defined: non-degradation (ND); light degradation (LD); moderate degradation (MD) and higher degradation (HD). Pearson correlation and redundancy analysis were used to examine the relationships between soil physical properties and soil hydraulic properties. Results Sand content increased while clay content decreased with increasing degree of degradation. In HD treatment, the available nitrogen and soil bulk density of surface soil layer was significantly lower than that in the other three stages, whereas the soil organic matter content and soil total porosity of surface soil layer was increased significantly, the soil compaction of 0-10 cm soil depth in HD was reduced significantly. The soil water retention of 0-60 cm soil depth first decreased and then increased with increasing degradation, with the maximum values occurring in HD, and the soil organic matter has an overwhelming effect on soil water retention than soil texture. Conclusions As the degree of degradation increased, the surface soil structure deteriorated, and available nitrogen reduced while soil organic matter increased sharply in higher degradation, which leads to the highest soil water retention in higher degradation. Our results suggested that the soil water retention in degraded alpine grassland was largely determined by soil organic matter, and the soil organic matter parameters should be incorporated in hydrological models of degraded alpine ecosystem.
关键词	Qinghai-Tibet plateau Alpine shrub meadow Soil water retention Soil properties Redundancy analysis
文献类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://210.75.249.4/handle/363003/60335
专题	中国科学院西北高原生物研究所
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Dai, Licong,Guo, Xiaowei,Ke, Xun,et al. The variation in soil water retention of alpine shrub meadow under different degrees of degradation on northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan plateau[J]. PLANT AND SOIL,2020.
APA	Dai, Licong,Guo, Xiaowei,Ke, Xun,Du, Yangong,Mang, Fawei,&Cao, Guangmin.(2020).The variation in soil water retention of alpine shrub meadow under different degrees of degradation on northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan plateau.PLANT AND SOIL.
MLA	Dai, Licong,et al."The variation in soil water retention of alpine shrub meadow under different degrees of degradation on northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan plateau".PLANT AND SOIL (2020).