Carbon and nitrogen mineralization in soils along a desertification gradient in the semiarid Horqin Sandy Land, Northern China
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This experiment was conducted in three sites along a desertification gradient in Horqin Sandy Land, Northern China. Soils unamended and amended with five types of plant residue in a wide range of C:N ratios from 9.9 to 82.2 were incubated for 70 days, during which C and N mineralization were measured. Along the desertification gradient from fixed sand dune to semifixed, and mobile sand dune: cumulative CO2-C produced from the unamended soils was 231.6, 193.3 and 61.9 μg/g, respectively, while net inorganic N was 22.9, 17.6 and 0.9 mg/kg. Soils amended with residues produced more CO2-C than the unamended soils across all sites. During the first 10 days, C mineralization rate of residue-amended soils decreased with the increase of C:N ratio at each site. However, the mineralization rates were poorly correlated with the C:N ratio in subsequent stage of incubation. Soils of mobile sand dune amended with higher C:N ratio (more than 32) residues produced less CO2-C than that of fixed and semifixed sand dune. NO3–-N was the predominant form of inorganic N during the mineralization process in sandy soils. Carbon-to-nitrogen ratio (C:N) can be regarded as a predictor of the speed of N mineralization in sandy soil. The more C. microphylla residue with the lowest C:N ratio (9.9) added in soils, the more net inorganic N released. Our results suggest that C. microphylla residue when added to soil would potentially provide short-term plant available N and improve the soil quality in sandy land. The desertification process postponed the release of inorganic N from plant residues.
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