Abstract
The profile distributions of soil organic carbon (SOC), soil organic nitrogen (SON), soil pH and soil texture were rarely investigated in the Lancangjiang River Basin. This study aims to present the vertical distributions of these soil properties and provide some insights about how they interact with each other in the two typical soil profiles. A total of 56 soil samples were collected from two soil profiles (LCJ S-1, LCJ S-2) in the Lancangjiang River Basin to analyze the profile distributions of SOC and SON and to determine the effects of soil pH and soil texture. Generally, the contents of SOC and SON decreased with increasing soil depth and SOC contents were higher than SON contents (average SOC vs. SON content: 3.87 g kg−1 vs. 1.92 g kg−1 in LCJ S-1 and 5.19 g kg−1 vs. 0.96 g kg−1 in LCJ S-2). Soil pH ranged from 4.50 to 5.74 in the two soil profiles and generally increased with increasing soil depth. According to the percentages of clay, silt, and sand, most soil samples can be categorized as silty loam. Soil pH values were negatively correlated with C/N ratios (r = −0.66, p < 0.01) and SOC contents (r = −0.52, p < 0.01). Clay contents were positively correlated with C/N ratios (r = 0.43, p < 0.05) and SOC contents (r = 0.42, p < 0.01). The results indicate that soil pH and clay are essential factors influencing the SOC spatial distributions in the two soil profiles.
Highlights
Soil that is the largest carbon pool in the terrestrial ecosystem owns a strong ability to store organic carbon, which is critical for mitigating global warming caused by increasing atmosphericCO2 [1,2]
Soil pH values were negatively correlated with C/N ratios (r = −0.66, p < 0.01) and soil organic carbon (SOC) contents (r = −0.52, p < 0.01)
Against the background of global warming, learning about the distribution characteristics of soil organic carbon (SOC) in soils helps to determine the response of SOC on climate change
Summary
Soil that is the largest carbon pool in the terrestrial ecosystem owns a strong ability to store organic carbon, which is critical for mitigating global warming caused by increasing atmosphericCO2 [1,2]. Against the background of global warming, learning about the distribution characteristics of soil organic carbon (SOC) in soils helps to determine the response of SOC on climate change. Soil C/N ratio (SOC to SON ratio) is an important indicator for the decomposition of SOM and often adopted to assess the quality of SOM: SOM that owns low C/N ratio is more to be decomposed and utilized by microorganisms [4]. It’s accepted that soil C/N ratio can significantly influence rice yield by changing the utilization efficiency of SON, it has been more concerned in agricultural management [5]. Studying the distribution characteristics and influencing factors of SOC and SON is essential in providing a reference for the development of soil management strategies
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