Abstract
Microbial biomass, extracellular enzyme activity, and their stoichiometry in soil play an important role in ecosystem dynamics and functioning. To better understand the improvement of sand soil quality and the limitation of soil nutrients after adding feldspathic sandstone, we investigated changes in soil microbial activity after 10 months of mixing feldspathic sandstone and sand, and compared the dynamics with soil properties. We used fumigation extraction to determine soil microbial biomass carbon (MBC), nitrogen (MBN), phosphorus (MBP), and microplate fluorometric techniques to measure soil β-1,4-glucosidase (BG), β-1,4-xylosidase (BX), β-D-cellobiohydrolase (CBH), N-acetyl-β-glucosaminidase (NAG), and Alkaline phosphatase (AKP). We also measured soil organic carbon (SOC), pH, electrical conductivity (EC), soil inorganic carbon (SIC), and soil water content (SWC). Our results showed that the soil microbial biomass C, N, P, and individual extracellular enzyme activities significantly increased in mixed soil. Similarly, the soil microbial biomass C:N, C:P, N:P, MBC:SOC, and BG:NAG significantly increased by 54.3%, 106.3%, 33.1%, 23.0%, and 65.4%, respectively. However, BG:AKP and NAG:AKP decreased by 19.0% and 50.3%, respectively. Additionally, redundancy analysis (RDA) and Pearson’s correlation analysis showed that SWC, SOC, porosity and field capacity were significantly associated with soil microbial biomass indices (i.e., C, N, P, C:N, C:P, N:P in microbial biomass, and MBC:SOC) and extracellular enzyme activity metrics (i.e., individual enzyme activity, ecoenzymatic stoichiometry, and vector characteristics of enzyme activity), while pH, EC, and SIC had no correlation with these indices and metrics. These results indicated that mixing feldspathic sandstone and sand is highly susceptible to changes in soil microbial activity, and the soil N limitation decreased while P became more limited. In summary, our research showed that adding feldspathic sandstone into sand can significantly improve soil quality and provide a theoretical basis for the development of desertified land resources.
Highlights
Desertification is a serious ecological and environmental problem faced by China and even other countries in the world, affecting about one-sixth of the world’s population [1]
The soil water content (SWC), Soil total carbon (STC), soil organic carbon (SOC), porosity, and field capacity in mixed soil significantly increased by 73.3%, 101.9, 163.2%, 32.2%, and 140.0%, respectively; whereas the bulk density (BD) and soil inorganic carbon (SIC) decreased by 9.2% and 16.4%, respectively
Our study showed the relative differences in soil microbial biomass and extracellular enzyme activities after mixing feldspathic sandstone and sand in Mu Us Sandy Land
Summary
Desertification is a serious ecological and environmental problem faced by China and even other countries in the world, affecting about one-sixth of the world’s population [1]. Drylands cover more than one-third of the Earth’s continental surface and constitute the most extensive terrestrial biome on the planet [3]. Carbon storage in drylands account for 36% of the total global carbon storage [4]. Arid ecosystems are often characterized by low energy and nutrient availability of soil microbes and the availability of N and P generally limits primary productivity and microbial activity. Research on the quality of desert soil has recently changed focus from the basic physical and chemical properties of soil and the sand-fixing mechanism of sandy plants to soil microbial characteristics [5,6]. It is very important to study soil microbes in desertified and arid areas, especially after adding feldspathic sandstone into sand so that we may better understand if and how desertification can be reversed
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