Correlations of Soil Nutrients, Microbial Mass and Enzyme Activity in the Hinterland of the Taklimakan Desert, a Case Study

Abstract

We explored the unique environmental conditions and management model of the Tarim Desert Highway shelter forest as well as the important roles of such shelter forest in development of the socio-economy of South Xinjiang. Experiments were conducted in the shelter forest lands drip-irrigated with underground saline water. Our results indicated that there are canonical correlations among soil nutrients, microbial amount and enzyme activity. The correlation between soil nutrients and soil microbial biomass was mainly attributed to total nitrogen, organic matter, total phosphate of nutrient factors, and amount of actinomycetes, carbon and phosphate content in microbe. The correlation between soil nutrients and soil enzyme activity was due to organic carbon, available potassium in soil and soil enzyme activities such as catalase activity and phosphatase activity. The correlation between soil microbial mass and activities of soil enzymes was due to phosphate and nitrogen contents in microbe and soil enzymes invertase and phosphatase activities. In addition to the correlations of soil nutrients and soil bio-activities, there is a vertical difference between these three factors in soil. We concluded that irrigation with saline groundwater had major effects on soil mineralization process. The release of soil nutrients in the process supported microbial mass colonization and soil enzyme activities in the Tarim Desert Highway shelter forest land. However, high level of salt in ground water adversely affected soil nutrient accumulation and microbe survival.