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Analysis of Soil Carbon, Nitrogen and Phosphorus Storage and Sequestration Effects in Alpine Grassland with Different Degradation Levels in Maqu County, China

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Abstract

Soil nutrient storage and sequestration effects are closely related to the stability of alpine grassland ecosystems, and the study of soil nutrient storage and sequestration effects in alpine grasslands with different degradation levels is of great significance to the recovery of alpine grassland vegetation. On this basis, four alpine grasslands with different degrees of degradation (non-degraded, lightly degraded, moderately degraded, and heavily degraded) were selected in Maqu County, Gannan, and soil samples were collected from 0–10, 10–20, 20–40, and 40–60 cm, respectively, and analyzed for nutrients in terms of storage and sequestration effects. The results showed that soil water content decreased with increasing degradation, while soil pH, bulk density, and conductivity tended to increase. The storage and sequestration effects of soil organic carbon decreased with increasing degradation. And the storage and sequestration effects of soil total nitrogen and total phosphorus were smallest for moderately degraded soils in the 10–60 cm soil layer. Soil water content and soil bulk density were co-influences on soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus storage. For the soil organic carbon sequestration effect, soil total nitrogen sequestration effect and soil pH were the two most important influencing factors, and the soil total nitrogen and total phosphorus sequestration effect were greatly influenced by soil organic carbon sequestration effect. In addition, soil bulk density was also the main influencing factor of soil total nitrogen sequestration effect, and the impact of soil total nitrogen sequestration on soil total phosphorus sequestration was also greatly influenced.

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DATA AVAILABILITY

Data will be made available on request.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We sincerely appreciate the Research Station of Alpine Meadow and Wetland Ecosystems of Lanzhou University for providing the field experiment site. We also thank the Gansu Province University Industry Support Programme Project (2023CYZC-21) for providing financial support.

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This work was supported by ongoing institutional funding. No additional grants to carry out or direct this particular research were obtained.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Geography and Environmental Science, Northwest Normal University, 730071, Lanzhou, China

    Qianyue Wang, Minxia Liu, Min Wang, Chunliang Yang & Lele Miao

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  1. Qianyue Wang
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  2. Minxia Liu
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Contributions

Qianyue Wang: conceptualization, writing-original draft; Minxia Liu: funding acquisition, review, and editing; Min Wang: methodology; Chunliang Yang and Lele Miao: software.

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Correspondence to Minxia Liu.

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Wang, Q., Liu, M., Wang, M. et al. Analysis of Soil Carbon, Nitrogen and Phosphorus Storage and Sequestration Effects in Alpine Grassland with Different Degradation Levels in Maqu County, China. Eurasian Soil Sc. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1064229323602846

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