Abstract
Twenty-seven surface soil samples were collected from four landscape sites in Shanghai, and seven soil profile samples were gathered from the two older sites for evaluation of horizontal and vertical distribution of soil properties to reveal their relationship with plant roots. Results indicated that urban soil had significant heterogeneities. Soil total nitrogen was significantly correlated with organic matter and total potassium was more abundant than total phosphorus. The available contents of iron, manganese, zinc and copper were higher than the standards for plant growth established by Soltanpour. pH and electrical conductivity increased with increasing soil vertical depth, possibly due to leaching, while the nutrients limiting plant growth such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, iron, copper and zinc had more shallow distributions due to absorption by plant roots. However, with the increasing of soil depth, contents of magnesium, sodium, sulfur and chloride increased due to leaching and bio-cycling, which was further shown by the correlation analysis.
Highlights
Urban soils are the basis of landscape planting and have a great effect on plant growth
The coefficients of variation (CVs) of soil pH from the different parks were
According to the classification system established by Richards summarized (Table 2s-1) [15], sensitive crops can only be grown without yield loss in soils with EC < 2 mS/cm, and so EC value of all soils from Expo Park and Century Park met the standard for sensitive plant growth
Summary
Urban soils are the basis of landscape planting and have a great effect on plant growth. (2016) Effect of Plant Roots on Soil Nutrient Distributions in Shanghai Urban Landscapes. Degradation of soil structure and nutrient deficiency in green spaces occurred in Chongqing [5]. These studies mainly focused on soil macro-nutrient elements. Micro-nutrients and secondary elements are normally required in minute quantities to ensure normal plant growth and formation of flowers because they are mostly associated with the enzymatic system of plants [6]. The available state of elements including macro-nutrient, secondary and micro-nutrient elements is a more valuable indicator to sustain and support plant growth
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