Research on soil net nitrogen mineralization in Stipa grandis grassland with different stages of degradation

Abstract

Net nitrogen mineralization is one of the nitrogen cycling process, and it is very important to understand nitrogen mineralization characteristics in degradation grassland. In the upper 0–10 cm soil layer of Stipa grandis P. A. Smirn. grassland in the Xilin river basin, Inner Mongolia, we studied the soil net nitrogen mineralization and nitrification among three varying stages of degradation grassland and analyzed the relationship between the mineralization rate of the soil net nitrogen and environmental factors, using the resin-core incubation method. Our results demonstrated that, from May to October 2012, the accumulated net nitrogen mineralization was 21.620 mg kg–1, 12.486 mg kg–1, and 48.053 mg kg–1 in the slightly, medium, and heavily degraded grasslands, respectively and varied greatly among the three stages of degradation shown by the S. grandis grassland plots. During the cultivation period, the variation of net nitrogen mineralization and nitrification was similar to the variation of soil mineral nitrogen. The higher soil mineral nitrogen content indicated higher mineralization of net nitrogen. In July and August, soil moisture was positively correlated with the net nitrogen mineralization rate, and the correlation coefficients between these two factors of 0.73, 0.58, and 0.79 for the slightly, medium, and heavily degraded plots, respectively. The rates of net nitrogen mineralization and nitrification were negatively correlated with soil total nitrogen, but positively correlated with C/N ratio, and weakly correlated with other physicochemical properties.