Grazing exclusion is more beneficial for restoring soil organic carbon and nutrient balance than afforestation on degraded sandy land

Wenjie Cao; Yuqiang Li; Yun Chen; Xuyang Wang

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1326244

Grazing exclusion is more beneficial for restoring soil organic carbon and nutrient balance than afforestation on degraded sandy land

Front Plant Sci. 2023 Dec 21:14:1326244. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1326244. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Wenjie Cao^{1

2}, Yuqiang Li^{1

2

3

4}, Yun Chen^{1

3}, Xuyang Wang^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China.
² University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
³ Naiman Desertification Research Station, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tongliao, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Strategic Mineral Resources of the Upper Yellow River, Ministry of Natural Resources, Lanzhou, China.

Abstract

Introduction: Vegetation restoration is an effective measure to improve the ecosystem service of degraded sandy land ecosystem. However, it is unclear how vegetation restoration on severely desertified land affect soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration and nutrients balance. Therefore, this study was designed to clarify the response of SOC, total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and the resulting stoichiometric ratios (C:N:P) to afforestation and grazing exclusion, and to quantify their dynamics over time.

Methods: We conducted vegetation community investigation and soil sampling in natural sparse-forest grassland (the climax community stage), afforestation (Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica (40-year, 48-year), Caragana microphylla (20-year, 40-year)), and grazing exclusion (20-year, 40-year) in China's Horqin Sandy Land. Soil C:N:P stoichiometry and its driving factors under different restoration measures were then studied.

Results: Afforestation and grazing exclusion significantly (p < 0.05) increased SOC, TN, and TP concentrations. Vegetation restoration significantly increased C:N, C:P, and N:P ratios, indicating that nutrient limitations may occur in the later stages of restoration. The C:N, C:P, and N:P ratios after a 40-year grazing exclusion were closest to those of natural sparse-forest grassland. The N:P under grazing exclusion increased from 3.1 to 4.1 with increasing restoration age (from 20 to 40 years), which was close to the national mean values (4.2). Moreover, afforestation may lead to water deficit in the surface soil. Vegetation restoration is the main factor leading to changes in soil C:N:P stoichiometry, and indirectly affects soil C:N:P stoichiometry by altering soil structure and chemical properties.

Conclusion: In terms of ecological stoichiometry, grazing exclusion was more conducive to restore SOC and nutrient balance than afforestation on severely desertified land. Due to the poor soil nutrients, attentions should be paid to the soil nutrients and water conditions in the later stages of vegetation restoration. Those findings can provide valuable information for the restoration of degraded sandy land in semi-arid areas.

Keywords: ecological restoration; ecological stoichiometry; nutrient limitation; restoration age; soil physicochemical property.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant number XDA26020104), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 42301080, 31971466, 32001214), and Grassland Elite Projects of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (grant number E339050701).