Changes in Soil Phosphorus and Its Influencing Factors Following Afforestation in Northern China
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Received: 22 October 2018 Revised: 5 May 2019 Accepted: 6 May 2019 DOI: 10.1002/ldr.3345 RESEARCH ARTICLE Changes in soil phosphorus and its influencing factors following afforestation in Northern China Xiankun Li1,2 | Yanan Li3 | Shouzhang Peng1,4 | Yunming Chen1,4 | Yang Cao1,4 1 Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Abstract Water Resources, Yangling 712100, PR China Changes in soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) stocks following afforestation have been 2 College of Resources and Environment, widely studied at different scales. However, soil phosphorus (P) dynamics following University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, PR China afforestation are poorly understood, especially at the regional scale. This paper 3 College of Forestry, Northwest A&F studied the effects of prior land use (cropland, grassland, and barren land), tree University, Yangling 712100, PR China species (conifer, broadleaf, shrub, and mixed), plantation age (young, middle, and 4 State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dry land Farming on Loess Plateau, Northwest old), and climate on soil total phosphorus and available phosphorus stocks change A&F University, Yangling 712100, PR China in the top 20 cm following afforestation based on a synthesis of 50 recent publica- Correspondence tions in northern China. We also considered possible confounding effects between Y. Cao, Institute of Soil and Water these factors. The results showed that, overall, soil total phosphorus and available Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources, Yangling phosphorus stocks significantly decreased by 7.3% and significantly increased by 712100, Shaanxi, PR China. 8.8%, respectively, following afforestation. Prior land use was found to be the most Email: [email protected] important driver in determining changes in soil P stocks. Compared with a significant Funding information decrease in P of afforestation of former cropland and grassland, afforestation of bar- National Key R&D Program of China, Grant/ Award Numbers: 2016YFC0501703 and ren land caused no clear decrease in P. Tree species was found to have a limited 2017YFC0504605; National Nature Science effect on changes in soil P after afforestation, and broadleaf afforestation has a lower Foundation of China, Grant/Award Numbers: 41601058 and 41201088; CAS “Light of West P demand than coniferous forests in the studied region. Plantation age did not affect China” Program, Grant/Award Number: the dynamics of P stocks. Our results showed confounding effects of precipitation, XAB2017A02 prior land use, and tree species, which impacted the estimates of the drivers of changes in P stocks. These results highlighted the importance of tree species selection and replication across sites that receive different amounts of precipitation. KEYWORDS afforestation, influencing factors, northern China, soil available phosphorus, soil total phosphorus 1 | INTRODUCTION not fully understood (Berthrong, Pineiro, Jobbagy, & Jackson, 2012), and the altered pools and cycles resulting from afforestation can in Afforestation, which is defined as tree planting on lands that histori- turn affect biomass production and ecosystem function (Yao, Shao, cally have not contained forest cover, has expanded rapidly worldwide Jia, & Li, 2017). During the last two decades, soil carbon (C) and soil in recent decades. Accordingly, the area of planted forest increased nitrogen (N) have been extensively studied at different scales and from 168 to 278 M ha from 1990 to 2015 at the global scale (Keenan major influencing factors such as climate, prior land use, plantation et al., 2015). However, long‐term soil nutrient availability, which is age, tree species, and soil texture have been studied in depth (Barcena essential for sustainable timer and/or carbon emission reduction, is et al., 2014; Berthrong et al., 2012; Liu, Yang, Wang, Huang, & Li, Land Degrad Dev. 2019;1–12. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/ldr © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 1 2 LI ET AL. 2018). However, levels of soil phosphorus (P), one of the most com- et al., 2014; Wang & Wang, 2010). However, changes in soil P follow- mon limiting nutrients, can also regulate changes in soil C stocks fol- ing afforestation can also be mediated by factors such as precipitation lowing afforestation (Vitousek, Porder, Houlton, & Chadwick, 2010), and temperature, local site properties, and even the spatial variation mainly by controlling net primary productivity and C allocation in for- in the soil P content (Allen, Corre, Kurniawan, Utami, & Veldkamp, est ecosystems, the decomposition rate of soil C, and the soil C 2016; Liu, Shao, & Wang, 2013; Wei et al., 2009). In two global‐scale sequestration process (Bronson et al., 2004; Shi et al., 2016). There- reviews about P dynamics following afforestation, which included fore, improved knowledge of changes in soil P stocks following affor- data from China (Deng et al., 2017; Shi et al., 2016), differences in estation is necessary when evaluating current or potential soil vegetation, and soil type as well as broad differences in management productivity, which further back to suggestions for sustainable man- regimens across regions may cause global‐scale reviews to have lim- agement of land resources, as well as for improved understanding of ited value with respect to making inferences about regional areas climate change and its feedback. (MacDonald, Bennett, & Taranu, 2012; Ringeval et al., 2017). In addi- As the major nutritional constraint for primary production in tion, the magnitudes and directions of P transformation are supposed terrestrial ecosystems, soil P is derived primarily from rock to differ in regions with different condition, almost in each sections of weathering; ecosystems begin their existence with a fixed amount P cycling (Figure 1). Therefore, combined with the limitation of of P, from which even very small losses cannot be easily replenished plot‐scale studies, a deeper understanding of changes in soil P in (Walker & Adams, 1958). To date, no consensus has been reached on specific regions is necessary to provide more general but practical whether afforestation is considered a ‘soil degrader’ or ‘soil improver’ advice for tree planting activities and forest management based on (Attiwill & Adams, 1993; R. Wang & Wang, 2010). After afforestation, local conditions and weather patterns. uptake of P and sequestration in biomass and litter likely drive the Northern China, which predominantly consists of arid and semi- decrease of total phosphorus(TP; Vitousek et al., 2010). However, arid areas, has been experiencing large‐scale afforestation in recent the enhanced primary vegetation productivity also increased the decades, such as that associated with the ‘Grain for Green’ pro- exogenous inputs (litter and rhizodeposition), and ultimately causing gramme and the ‘Three Norths Shelter Forest System’ project. There an increase in the source of soil P (Cao & Chen, 2017). To date, affor- is a need for further knowledge of changes in P after afforestation in estation have been reported to either increase (Chen, He, et al., 2016; this area, not only because the soil P concentration in northern Zhang et al., 2019), decrease (Hu et al., 2018; Li et al., 2017), or have China is lower on average than the global mean, resulting from low no effect (Shi et al., 2016; Wei et al., 2009) on total and available P. P inputs by weathering and strong losses by soil erosion and water The current studies on changes in soil TP (available phosphorus runoff (Cao, Zhang, & Chen, 2017; Zhang, Zhang, Peng, Chen, & [AP]) stocks following afforestation are mostly focusing on the plot Cao, 2017), but also because northern China features by the climate scale, which fail to involve more affecting factors and extrapolate to of short rainy season and the growth and survival of vegetation in a more convincing conclusion. For example, studies on P dynamics China's arid and semiarid regions are strongly limited by the avail- following grassland (GL) afforestation focused on the effect of the ability of water (Deng, Yan, Zhang, & Shangguan, 2016). Although tree species, and the studied plantation ages were not dynamic (Chen, meta‐analyses have been extensively used in quantitative reviews Condron, Davis, & Sherlock, 2000; Chirino‐Valle, Davis, & Condron, of changes in soil C and soil N after afforestation in this region, 2016). Studies on the effects of temporal P dynamics following affor- changes in soil P after afforestation are nonexistent or scarce. Based estation have also been limited to unique tree species and the same on 50 publications in northern China, this article aimed to synthesize prior land‐use type (Chen, Condron, Davis, & Sherlock, 2003; Liu the major changes in soil P stocks after afforestation by means of a FIGURE 1 Schematic diagram of phosphorus cycling (Tiessen, Stewart, & Cole, 1984; Walbridge, Richardson, & Swank, 1991) LI ET AL. 3 meta‐analysis. We studied the major influencing factors, with focus extracted from figures using Enguage Digitizer 4.1. When data were on prior land use type, tree species, and plantation age, considering not provided in a publication, we tried to find the information in the possible confounding effects of these factors and precipitation. study or contacted the author. In the end, 162 TP observations and 143 AP observations in the top 20 cm of the soil from 50 peer‐ reviewed articles were collected (Table S1 in the Supporting Information). 2 | MATERIALS