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Effects of freeze-thaw cycles and soil moisture content on soil available micronutrients on aggregate scale in natural grassland and Chinese pine forestland on the Loess Plateau, China

  • Soils, Sec 5 • Soil and Landscape Ecology • Research Article
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Abstract

Purpose

Micronutrient presence and concentration are strongly influenced by soil aggregate size. Seasonal freeze-thaw patterns are known to modify soil aggregate distributions, thereby contributing to the transformation and redistribution of available soil micronutrients. Few studies, however, have evaluated the response of aggregate-associated available micronutrients to freeze-thaw cycles (FTCs) under different types of vegetation restoration.

Materials and methods

We designed a laboratory experiment to simulate the three typical types of ecosystems on the Loess Plateau in China (cropland, Chinese pine forestland, and natural grassland). In this experiment, we measured the effects of number of FTCs (0, 1, 3, and 9) and soil moisture content (SMC) (40 and 80% field capacity) on available micronutrients (Cu, Fe, Mn, and Zn) in bulk soil and three soil aggregate size classes.

Results and discussion

FTCs significantly increased available micronutrient content in bulk soil by increasing > 2000 μm aggregate-associated available micronutrient contents and decreasing < 250 μm aggregate-associated available micronutrient contents. In most cases, the influences of FTCs on bulk soil and aggregate-associated available micronutrient content were enhanced by increased SMC. Compared with cropland soil, the bulk soil available Cu, Fe, Mn, and Zn in natural grassland soil and available Cu in Chinese pine forestland soil were significantly increased. The increasing effects of FTCs on the available micronutrient content in cropland and natural grassland soils were larger than that in Chinese pine forestland soil.

Conclusions

The results indicated that increasing FTCs and SMC was beneficial for alleviating available micronutrient deficiencies in soil, and natural grassland was better than Chinese pine forestland for increasing available micronutrients in this loess-derived soil.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr. Stephen Gaughran at Yale University for his assistance with English language and grammatical editing.

Funding

This research was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Project (2017YFD0800502), National Natural Science Foundation of China (41701603, 51779204), Program for Science & Technology Innovation Research Team of Shaanxi Province (2018TD-037), Planning Project of Science and Technology of Water Resources of Shaanxi (2017slkj-22), and Natural Science Basic Research Plan in Shaanxi Province, China (2019JQ-743).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Eco-hydraulics in Northwest Arid Region, Xi’an University of Technology, Xi’an, 710048, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China

    Zhaohong Feng, Zhanbin Li, Peng Li & Lie Xiao

  2. Key Laboratory of National Forestry and Grassland Administration on Ecological Hydrology and Disaster Prevention in Arid Regions, Xi’an University of Technology, Xi’an, 710048, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China

    Zhaohong Feng, Zhanbin Li, Peng Li & Lie Xiao

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  1. Zhaohong Feng
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  2. Zhanbin Li
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Correspondence to Lie Xiao.

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The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest. This article does not contain any studies with human participants and/or animals. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Feng, Z., Li, Z., Li, P. et al. Effects of freeze-thaw cycles and soil moisture content on soil available micronutrients on aggregate scale in natural grassland and Chinese pine forestland on the Loess Plateau, China. J Soils Sediments 20, 4023–4033 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-020-02706-z

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