Abstract
The bare lands formed after volcanic eruptions provide an excellent opportunity to study the interactions between vegetation succession and soil formation. To explore the changes in soil physicochemical properties in the vegetation succession processes and the relationship between them, soil physicochemical properties of different volcanic ash accumulation on Miyake-jima Island were studied at different vegetation succession stages. The results showed that soil bulk density gradually decreased and that soil porosity, soil water content (SWC), pH, cation exchange capacity (CEC), soil total organic carbon (TOC), and total nitrogen (TN) increased significantly with vegetation succession. The physicochemical properties changes in the soil surface horizon were most obvious, and the deep soil accumulated a large amount of relatively stable soil carbon and nitrogen. The forest land formed a thicker organic matter horizon, accumulating more carbon and nitrogen than grassland, and the soil quality index (SQI) was higher than that of grassland and shrubland. In conclusion, our research indicates the significant change in soil physicochemical properties and the improvement in soil quality in the vegetation succession processes, emphasizing a significant relationship between vegetation succession and soil development in bare land.
Highlights
Physical and chemical weathering play a key role in soil formation
Due to the island being formed by volcanic eruptions, the soil had a very significant active aluminum reaction with a stronger aluminum reaction on the soil surface, which is consistent with the high degree of weathering on the soil surface and the leaching of a large amount of active aluminum
The highly weighted indicators in the same principal component were significantly correlated with each other, and Total organic carbon (TOC), Gas fraction (GF), and pH (H2O) were selected for the calculation of soil quality index (SQI)
Summary
Physical and chemical weathering play a key role in soil formation. The weathering products of parent materials provide the necessary nutrient elements for plant development and growth [1,2], regulate the chemical composition of soil [3,4] and groundwater [5,6], and gradually transform parent materials into soil suitable for vegetation growth. Vegetation plays an important role in controlling the formation of soil [7,8,9]. Vegetation accelerates soil formation by promoting physical and chemical weathering of parent materials. Chadwick et al [8] used chrono sequences along with an altitudinal gradient in Hawaii to emphasize the importance of soil moisture and the physical properties of soil in controlling water percolation, cation leaching, and soil formation
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