Soil quality regime in relation to land cover and slope position across a highly modified slope landscape

Abstract

Vegetation and land‐use mosaics of shrub land, grassland, farmland and reforested land are characteristic for residential areas of the Wolong nature reserve in Sichuan province, southwest China. The patterns represent a stage in long‐term human disturbance and natural secondary succession since deforestation. The aim of this paper was to elucidate the soil‐land cover types, soil‐slope position relationships on a typical disturbed slope in the humid mountainous region. Soils were taken from four typical land cover types (shrub land, grassland, farmland and reforested land) under four slope positions (upper slope, middle slope, lower slope, foot slope) to study the distribution of soil nutrients and moisture on the transect scales of the slope. To elucidate the influence of land‐use and slope position on soil quality, two integrated quantitative indexes were developed to compare soil quality under different land‐use types (QI) and under different slope positions (PI). The results showed shrub land had the highest QI value, while the QI of reforested land and farmland had lower values. Foot slopes and upper slopes had higher soil quality levels compared to middle slopes and lower slopes. The results indicated that on the slope scale shrub land had high soil quality levels. The results also suggested that in the area of China where the climate favors secondary succession, ‘leave nature as it is’ is a better choice than the policy ‘change farmland to forest land’.