Correlations between forest soil quality and aboveground vegetation characteristics in Hunan Province, China

Yafei Shen; Jing Li; Fangfang Chen; Ruimei Cheng; Wenfa Xiao; Lichao Wu; Lixiong Zeng

doi:10.3389/fpls.2022.1009109

Correlations between forest soil quality and aboveground vegetation characteristics in Hunan Province, China

Front Plant Sci. 2022 Dec 7:13:1009109. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.1009109. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Yafei Shen^{1

2}, Jing Li¹, Fangfang Chen³, Ruimei Cheng^{1

2}, Wenfa Xiao^{1

2}, Lichao Wu³, Lixiong Zeng^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Ecology and Nature Conservation Institute, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Environment of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Beijing, China.
² Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Soil and Water Conservation and Desertification Combating of Hunan Province, College of Forestry, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha, China.

Abstract

As a key component of terrestrial ecosystems, soil interacts directly with aboveground vegetation. Evaluating soil quality is therefore of great significance to comprehensively explore the interaction mechanism of this association. The purpose of this study was to fully understand the characteristics of aboveground vegetation, soil quality, and their potential coupling relationship among different forest types in Hunan Province, and to provide a theoretical basis for further exploring the mechanisms underlying soil-vegetation interactions in central China. We have set up sample plots of five kinds of forests (namely broad-leaved forest, coniferous forest, coniferous broad-leaved mixed forest, bamboo forest, and shrub forest) in Hunan Province. To explore the differences of vegetation characteristics and soil physical and chemical properties among the five stand types, variance analysis, principal component analysis, and regression analysis were used. Finally, we explored the coupling relationship between soil quality and aboveground vegetation characteristics of each forest. We found that there were significant differences in soil quality among the forest types, ranked as follows: shrub forest > bamboo forest > broad-leaved forest > mixed coniferous and broad-leaved forest > coniferous forest. In general, there was a negative correlation between vegetation richness and soil quality in the broad-leaved forest and the shrub forest, but they showed a positive correlation in the coniferous forest, the mixed coniferous and broad-leaved forest, and the bamboo forest. As a necessary habitat condition for aboveground vegetation, soil directly determines the survival and prosperity of plant species. These results indicated that for vegetation-soil dynamics in a strong competitive environment, as one aspect wanes the other waxes. However, in a weak competitive environment, the adverse relationship between vegetation and soil is less pronounced and their aspects can promote.

Keywords: coupling characteristics; forest stand types; soil physical and chemical properties; subtropical; survival competition.