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Shrub Encroachment Shapes Soil Nutrient Concentration, Stoichiometry and Carbon Storage in an Abandoned Subalpine Grassland

Leilei Ding,Puchang Wang,Wen Zhang,Yu Zhang,Shige Li,Xin Wei,Xi Chen,Yongjun Zhang,Fuli Yang

Published 2019 in Sustainability

ABSTRACT

Soil nutrient stoichiometry plays a substantial role in terrestrial carbon and nutrient cycling. However, the changes in soil nutrient stoichiometry with shrub encroachment (SE) remain poorly understood, especially in subalpine areas. We examined the changes in soil nutrient concentration, nutrient stoichiometry, and organic carbon (OC) storage (at a depth of 0–5, 5–10 and 10–20 cm) in three successional shrub encroachment stages (early, mid and late) in an abandoned subalpine Eulalia pallens (Hackel) Kuntze grassland. An ANOVA showed that SE did not produce serious soil acidification, but significantly increased the soil OC and total phosphorous (TP) concentration, and improved the stoichiometry ratio of soil OC to total nitrogen (OC:TN) in all layers. OC storage tended to increase with SE. SE thus did not indicate degradation of the grassland. A redundancy analysis (RDA) and partial RDA revealed that the shrub relative cover and soil water content were the most important factors affecting the soil nutrient concentration, that the soil available phosphorous (AP), nitrogen, potassium, calcium (ACa), and magnesium concentration and shrub relative cover were the most important factors influencing soil nutrient stoichiometry ratios, and that soil OC:TN, TN:TP, OC:TN:TP, and AP:ACa ratios, bulk density, and pH were the most important factors influencing soil OC storage over SE. Our study provides insights into SE in grassland areas, and potentially provides a useful reference for ongoing grassland conservation and restoration in subalpine regions.

PUBLICATION RECORD

  • Publication year

    2019

  • Venue

    Sustainability

  • Publication date

    Unknown publication date

  • Fields of study

    Economics, Environmental Science

  • Identifiers
    DOI 10.3390/SU11061732
  • External record

    Open on Semantic Scholar

  • Source metadata

    Semantic Scholar

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