Abstract
The distribution of karst landscapes over the Earth’s surface, to a large extent, follows the distribution of carbonate (limestone and dolomite) and gypsum rocks and together these make up about 12% of the Earth’s land area, and the largest karst region in to world is in Southwestern China. Characterized by a unique set of landforms, these geographical areas also differ from other geomorphic regions by the presence of cave systems in the subsurface. Unfortunately, due to human disturbances, such as deforestation, agricultural expansion, livestock overgrazing and fire, these regions have been affected by varying degrees of degradation, which could also be worsened if water and soil erosion phenomena typical of these areas are considered. Therefore, there is a need to implement measures and strategies to protect these karst areas and develop plans to restore vegetation in this region. To support local and national authorities to achieve this goal, this study aims to characterize nutrient deficiencies in degraded areas and estimate what could be the thresholds required to facilitate the restoration of vegetation in karst areas in southwest China. The results obtained confirm that the total element concentrations for Soil Organic Carbon (SOC), N, K, Ca, P, S and Mg were relatively high in the study karst area in southwest China. However, the total amounts of soil nutrients stored were very low due to the limited amount of soil identified as a consequence of previous deforestation processes undertaken within this study area and this aspect needs to be taken into consideration if aiming at a positive success of future restoration processes.
Highlights
Karst topography is a type of special landform that develops on carbonate rocks such as limestone or dolomite due to the action of water [1,2]
The purpose of this study is to quantify the nutrient reserves and their allocation in karst ecosystems in southwestern China, and determine whether nutrient deficiencies caused by the very low amount of soil are the restrictive factors for the restoration of vegetation in karst areas
This study focused on two different types of vegetation, arbor forest (F) and shrub–arbor forest transition (FS), and the parameters collected in the field were values of the biomass, the soil volume and the soil nutrient reserves (carbon (C), nitrogen (N), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), phosphorus (P), sulfur (S) and magnesium (Mg))
Summary
Karst topography is a type of special landform that develops on carbonate rocks such as limestone or dolomite due to the action of water [1,2]. Karst areas are widely distributed around the world, cover a total area of approximately 22 million km , accounting for about 12% of the total world land area [3,4,5,6,7]. These areas are inhabited by nearly 1 billion people [3]. Southwestern China is the largest karst region in the world with a total area of approximately 540,000 km , and its ecosystems and environments are affected by the natural and hydrological processes typical of karst regions.
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