Effects of grassland amelioration on terrestrial ecosystem nutrients: a case study in Jianou Niukenglong Grassland Ecosystem Experimental Station, Fujian Province

Abstract

This paper studies the effects of land cover changes on distributions and circulations of nutrients in a terrestrial ecosystem, taking Jianou Niukenglong Grassland Ecosystem Experimental Station as a case study. During a two year experiment from 1994 to 1996, the land cover types were changed from desert slopeland to grasslands, in particular,Chamaecrista rotundifolia(pers) green + Pasalum thunbergii andGlycine max var. + Pasalum thunbergii. In order to study land cover change effects on nutrients in the terrestrial ecosystem, we selected organic materials (OMs), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K) and aluminum (Al) to study their changes in total soil nutrient concentrations, nutrient reserves in soil, distributions and reservations of nutrients in distinct grassland communities and overall nutrient contents reserved in terrestrial ecosystem, and their circulation with land cover change. The experimental results indicate that with the increase of vegetation coverage, the total concentrations of N, P and K grow rapidly in the soil, but that of Al decreases markedly. The increases of the total concentrations of N, P and K were mainly the consequences of changes of the factors that affect soil evolution, e.g., soil moisture, and changes of soil evolution processes, e.g., weathering rate and the decrease of soil erosion. These changes were caused by land coverage growth from desert slopeland to grassland. With the change of the land cover types and the increase of land coverage, the activity of Al accelerated as well, and the vertical penetration and lateral penetration of Al have been increased. Therefore, the loss of Al within the experimental terrestrial ecosystem was inevitable, and the total concentration and reserve of Al in soil have become smaller and smaller, in spite of the growth of grass absorbing some amounts of Al. The Al reserve has increased in vegetation, but it has declined in total terrestrial ecosystem. Land cover change also affects the circulations of nutrients in the terrestrial ecosystem and for the purpose of study on nutrient circulations, we choose to study plant absorption, litter and reservation of nutrients to establish an index to indicate the situations of nutrient circulations within terrestrial ecosystems. The results indicate that in the two land cover types (two grassland ecosystems), the sequence of nutrient circulation indices are N > K > P > Al inChamaecrista rotundifolia(pers) green +Pasalum thunbergii and P > N > K > Al inGlycine max var. +Pasalum thunbergii. On the basis of the study, we can conclude that land cover change affects both distributions and circulations in the terrestrial ecosystem, and that different changes have distinct influences on distributions and circulations. Some nutrients were affected differently in some contents.