The assessment of soil degradation in successive rotations of Chinese fir plantation and the soil amelioration of mixed plantation of Chinese fir and broad-leaved
Abstract:Soil degradation in the successive rotations of Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata) and the soil improvement of the mixed plantations of Chinese fir and broad-leaved species have been widely reported. However, changes in soil bulk density are usually reported at the same times. We collected soil bulk density, soil organic carbon and nitrogen data from paired site studies of successive rotations of Chinese fir and mixed plantations. Our analyses found that soil bulk density of mixed plantation was 5% smaller than that of pure Chinese fir plantation, and the soil bulk density of Chinese fir plantation increased by 6% and 9% from the 1st rotation to the 2nd rotation, and from the 2nd rotation to 3rd rotation, respectively. The changes in soil bulk density may cause significant errors when assessing soil fertility among different rotations and planting models (pure versus mixed plantations), because the comparability of the paired sites was lost. In this paper, we tried to re-assess the changes in soil organic carbon and nitrogen among different successive rotations of Chinese fir plantations and mixed plantation of Chinese fir and broad-leaved trees, by eliminating the impacts of soil bulk density. Results showed that soil amelioration of mixed plantations and the soil degradation of successive rotations of Chinese fir plantation were underestimated. Comparing to Chinese fir pure plantation, relative changes of soil organic carbon and total nitrogen stocks in mixed plantations were underestimated by 6% and 5%, respectively. Relative changes of soil organic carbon and total nitrogen stocks were significantly underestimated by 5% and 7% from the first rotation to the second rotation, and 7% and 8% from the second rotation to the third rotation, respectively (p=0.05).