Altitude Distribution in Qujing Tobacco Growing Areas and its Relationship with Soil Nutrients

Abstract

The nutrient contents in 1778 soil samples from main tobacco growing areas in 96 towns of 9counties of Qujing City in Yunnan Province were analyzed, and their relationships with altitude were investigated. The results showed that Qujing tobacco growing areas were mainly at the altitude from 1300 to2400 m, the average altitude was 1929.03 ± 168.78 m. The altitude extremely significantly positively correlated to the contents of organic matter, available manganese, available boron and available sulfur in soil, significantly positively correlated to alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen content, and extremely significantly negatively correlated to pH, and the contents of total phosphorus, total potassium, readily-available phosphorus, readily-available potassium, available calcium and available magnesium; while its relationship with total nitrogen content was not significant. The top three soil nutrients in the order of correlation with altitude were pH, alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen and total nitrogen contents. With the ascent of altitude, the contents of available manganese, available boron and available sulfur in soil increased gradually, while soil pH and the contents of readily-available phosphorus, readily-available potassium and available magnesium in soil reduced gradually.