Abstract
Ecologically fragile cropland soils and intensive agricultural production are characteristic of the valley area of the Tibetan Plateau. A systematic assessment of soil quality is necessary and important for improving sustainable cropland management in this area. This study aims to establish a minimum data set (MDS) for soil quality assessment and generate an integrated soil quality index for sustainable cropland management in the Tibetan Plateau. Soil samples were collected from the 0–20 cm depths of agricultural land in the middle and lower reaches of the Lhasa River. These samples were analyzed by routine laboratory methods. Significant differences were identified via statistical test between different soil types and land use types for each soil property. Principal component analysis was used to define a MDS of indicators that determine soil quality. Consequently, effective porosity, pH, total organic C, total N, available P, and catalase were identified as the final MDS. The soil quality index was obtained by the fuzzy-set membership function and the linear weighted additive method. The soil quality index differed significantly between the soil types and land use types. The soil quality can be ranked based on their indices in the following order: 1. Grain land with meadow soils, 2. Grain land with steppe soils, 3. Greenhouse vegetable land with fluvo-aquic soils, 4. Grain land with fluvo-aquic soils. The soils with higher soil quality indices exhibited better soil structure, higher nutrient contents, and superior resistance to water and nutrient loss. While the intensive tillage practices associated with vegetable production could reduce the values for effective porosity, pH and catalase, the application of appropriate fertilizers increased the values for total organic C, total N and available P. Therefore, the MDS method is an effective and useful tool to identify the key soil properties for assessing soil quality, and provides guidance on adaptive cropland management to a variety of soil types and land use types.
Highlights
Land degradation is a pervasive and systemic phenomenon that impacts approximately 30% of the total global land area across all parts of the terrestrial world [1]
Soil sampling points were classified according to the following soil types: fluvo-aquic soils (n = 53), meadow soils (n = 14), and steppe soils (n = 26)
Descriptive Statistics of Soil Properties A total of 23 soil properties were analyzed as potential soil quality indicators
Summary
Land degradation is a pervasive and systemic phenomenon that impacts approximately 30% of the total global land area across all parts of the terrestrial world [1]. A systematic assessment of soil quality is necessary and important for improving sustainable cropland management in the Tibetan Plateau. Fragile cropland soils and intensive agricultural production are characteristic of the valley area of the Tibetan Plateau. Urease activity was assayed by adding toluene to moist soils and incubating soils with 1 mol L−1 citric acid buffer (pH = 6.7) and 10% urea for 3 h at 38 ◦C and measuring the amount of NH4+ with a spectrophotometer at 578 nm [30]. Catalase activity was determined by first adding 3 mol L−1 of H2SO4 and 0.3% hydrogen peroxide solution to moist soils. This mixture was incubated via a 30-min oscillation. Alkaline phosphatase was assayed by measuring the amount of phenol via a spectrophotometer at 578 nm [30]. β-glucosidase was measured by incubating soil samples in McIlvaine buffer (pH 4.8) with p-nitrophenyl-β-D-glucopyranoside and toluene at 30 ◦C for 1 h and subjecting the samples to colorimetric estimation of p-nitrophenol that was released by enzyme activity [32]
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