Spatio-temporal distribution of soil nitrogen in Poyang lake ecological economic zone (South-China)

Abstract

Revealing the spatio-temporal distribution of soil nitrogen (N) contributes to N management and prevention of N pollution. The objective of this work is to study the spatio-temporal distribution of soil N and their driving factors in the topsoil (0–20 cm) of farmland in Yugan county, China in 1982 and 2012. Data were collected from 200 sampling sites of the second national soil survey in Yugan in 1982 and 423 sampling sites of the soil testing and formula fertilization project in 2012. On average total N (TN) and available N (AN) significantly increased from 1.50 g kg−1 and 153.04 mg kg−1 in 1982 to 1.58 g kg−1 and 179.75 mg kg−1 in 2012, respectively. The distance of spatial autocorrelation for TN increased from 2.79 to 6.18 km and from 2.97 to 18.00 km for AN from 1982 to 2012. The nugget/sill ratio for TN (0.472 in 1982 and 0.581 in 2012) indicated that soil TN driving by natural characteristics in 1982 to human activities in 2012. The nugget/sill ratio for soil AN (0.471 in 1982 and 0.688 in 2012) indicated that soil AN is more influenced by human activities. The major factors driving the spatio-temporal distribution of soil N was N application rate. To promote the sustainable development of agriculture and eco-environment, we should improve the awareness of farmers on chemical fertilizers (particularly N) and the level of N fertilizer management, increase the use of manure and organic fertilizer and facilitate rational fertilization by farmers.