Effects of planting Caragana shrubs on soil nutrients and stoichiometries in desert steppe of Northwest China

Abstract

Caragana korshinskii shrubs are widely planted in desert steppe of Northwest China to mitigate desert encroachment. Soil nutrients and stoichiometries reflect the cycling of soil organic matter in ecosystems. Thus, there is a dynamic balance between soil nutrients and stoichiometries due to the establishment of Caragana shrubs in this region. Here, soil nutrients and stoichiometries were characterized with different planting densities of Caragana shrubs (HD, high density, 4530 bundle/hm2; MD, mid density, 3670 bundle/hm2; LD, low density, 2560 bundle/hm2) to explore how the planting of Caragana shrubs affects soil nutrients and stoichiometries in desert steppe of Northwest China. The results showed that soil available phosphorus (AP) and soil total phosphorus (TP) had no significant differences between LD and control (CK) (p > 0.05). Further, soil organic carbon (SOC), soil total nitrogen (TN), and soil alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen (AN) followed the order of HD > MD > LD > CK, indicating that the planting of Caragana shrubs had an increasing effect to soil nutrients, with the exception of AP and TP (p < 0.05), and the increasing effect gradually died down along soil profile. In addition, the planting of Caragana shrubs significantly affected soil stoichiometries. Specifically, soil N/P and C/P gradually increased with soil depth with fluctuation, while soil C/N decreased with soil depth. Besides, soil water content (SW), AP, AN, and SOC had strong positive effects on soil C/N, while they had strong negative effects on soil C/P and N/P, highlighting the importance of soil properties in determining soil stoichiometries. Overall, our results indicated that planting Caragana shrubs can improve levels of soil nutrients, and HD can be considered the optimal planting density for vegetation restoration in desert steppe. Nevertheless, the threshold of the planting density most favorable for the special climates must be identified through further study in this region.