Characteristics of soil stability and carbon sequestration under water storage and drainage model

Abstract

This research was conducted to investigate the influence of saline alkali soil on soil physical properties, stability and organic carbon storage under water storage and drainage, and to provide scientific basis for improving soil quality in Fuping County of Shaanxi Province, China. Saline alkali soil model test was conducted and the process was assessed with two different methods: i) traditional drainage and ecological water storage, measure and analyze 0-30 cm soil bulk density, porosity, field water capacity, mean mass diameter (MWD), geological mean diameter (GMD), stability of water stable aggregate (WASR), aggregate destruction rate (PAD), fractal dimension (D) and; ii) organic carbon storage, comprehensively analyze the relationship between stability index and soil organic carbon. The results show that: (1) compared with traditional drainage treatment, water treatment may effectively reduce the soil bulk density by 1.3%-4.2%, and improve soil porosity and field capacity at the same time; (2) under dry and wet screen treatment, soil stability, the water storing treatment is higher than the drainage treatment. Performance trend of soil MWD and GMD increases with the increase of soil depth. The stability of soil water stable aggregates increased 14.5%-53.4%. The average aggregate destruction rate was 3.2% lower than that of the drainage treatment and the difference is obvious (P< 0.05). (3) Soil organic carbon content and organic carbon storage in 0-30 cm soil layer could be increased effectively by water storage. Both of them were 13.4%-27.9% and 9.9%-18.8% higher than the drainage treatment. (4) There is a negative correlation among average aggregate destruction rate, fractal dimension and soil organic carbon storage. The correlation coefficient is, respectively, R2=0.86 and R2=0.94, and the difference is obvious (P<0.05). To sum up, the water storage treatment can effectively improve the soil quality, improve soil stability and soil organic carbon storage, which can be a good control of saline alkali soil.