Abstract
The interaction between vegetation and soil is important for vegetation restoration and reconstruction during the succession of abandoned farmland. We chose four kinds of abandoned farmlands with the time of 1, 6, 12, and 22 years to experiment in the Loess Plateau. The community composition, community biomass, and soil nutrients of the four kinds of abandoned farmlands were studied by the method of temporal–spatial alternation, and the interaction effects among vegetation, biomass, soil nutrients, and abandonment time were analyzed. The results showed there were 33 species belonging to 13 families during the succession and 15 species of Gramineae and Compositae, accounting for 47% of the total community species. The succession trend of abandoned farmland was as follows: The vegetation was the weed community of Heteropappus altaicus + Artemisia capillaris in the beginning of the abandonment stage and became the weed community of Tragus racemosus + Enneapogon borealis after 6 years of abandonment. Then, Leymus secalinus became the dominant population in the community after 12 years of abandonment. When the succession lasted for 22 years, the vegetation became a common advantageous community of Stipa breviflora and Cleistogenes songorica. Soil moisture (SM) was positively correlated with soil nutrients and negatively correlated with abandonment time and community biomass. Soil organic matter (SOM), soil total nitrogen (STN), and alkali hydrolyzable nitrogen (AHN) were the highest in 0–10 cm soil layer, showing obvious surface accumulation. The three decreased with the soil layer, and there was a positive correlation among them. The abandonment time had a positive effect on the above-ground biomass (AGB) and below-ground biomass (BGB) and a negative effect on the SOM, STN, and AHN. The root/shoot ratio (R/S) was positively correlated with SOM and negatively correlated with abandonment time. With the progress of succession, the hierarchical differentiation of the community was gradually obvious, and the community structure begun to complicate. The community better adapted to the arid environment and toward the local top community succession.
Highlights
In the soil–vegetation system, vegetation and soil are unified organisms, which depend on each other and restrict each other
We studied the dynamic changes of vegetation, community biomass and its distribution proportion, and soil nutrients according to combined field investigation and indoor analysis by the method of spatial sequence instead of time sequence in the succession process of abandoned farmland vegetation
Soil organic matter (SOM) was tested by the potassium dichromate volumetric method, soil total nitrogen (STN) was tested by semimicro-Kjeldahl, and alkali hydrolyzable nitrogen (AHN) was tested by the alkaline diffusion method (Bao, 1986)
Summary
In the soil–vegetation system, vegetation and soil are unified organisms, which depend on each other and restrict each other. In the process of growth, plants gradually improve the physical and chemical properties of soil by absorption and utilization of soil nutrients (Jiang, 2007; Chang et al, 2008; Jia et al, 2011; Hou and Fu, 2014; Kämpf et al, 2016; Yang et al, 2018; Li et al, 2019; Shang et al, 2019; Hou et al, 2020). Many studies had shown that, during the vegetation succession after farmland abandonment, the species diversity and community productivity increased gradually, and the community structure tended to be complicated, which better improved the regional ecological environment (Jiang, 2007; Hou and Fu, 2014; Hülber et al, 2017; Du et al, 2020). The increase in vegetation productivity increases the soil nutrients; with the improvement of soil’s physical and chemical properties, the productivity of vegetation is further improved, which promotes the process of vegetation succession (Yan et al, 2006; Du et al, 2009; Martinez et al, 2010; Fayez, 2012; Yang et al, 2018; Shang et al, 2019; Hou et al, 2020; Liu et al, 2020)
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