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Updated: Aug 11, 2026
Measuring and Mapping Patterns of Soil Erosion and Deposition Related to Soil Carbonate Concentrations Under Agricultural Management
Published on: September 12, 2017
[Effect of land use change on spatial distribution pattern of soil total nitrogen in Keerqin sandy land]
Fusheng Chen1, Dehui Zeng, Guangsheng Chen
1Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China. chenfush@yahoo.com
Abstract:
By using statistics and geostatistics, this paper studied the content and spatial pattern of soil total nitrogen (TN) in a glassland and an arable land of southeast Keerqin sandy land. The TN content in 0-10 cm soil layer of the arable land reclaimed from a glassland 8 years ago was not different from that of the virgin grassland, but the TN content in 10-20 cm soil layer was higher than that in the grassland (P < 0.05). The soil TN storage in the grassland was 262.36 g x hm(-2) higher than that in the arable land, and its spatial pattern was significantly different between arable land and grassland. The heterogeneity and spatial dependence of TN in each soil layer (0-10 cm and 10-20 cm) of the arable land were larger than those of the grassland, and the ranges and fractal dimensions of TN in each soil layer of the arable land were larger than those of the grassland. There existed a clear horizontal spatial structure heterogeneity and spatial distribution pattern in the arable land, while in the grassland, the horizontal spatial structure heterogeneity was very low, and the horizontal spatial distribution pattern was random and uniform. The TN content in the 0-10 cm and 10-20 cm soil layers of the arable land had no difference (P < 0.05), its spatial structure characters had some difference (P < 0.05), and its spatial distribution pattern was very similar (r = 0.683, P < 0.05). The TN content and its spatial structure characters between two soil layers of the grassland had remarkable difference (P < 0.05), but its spatial distribution pattern in the two layers was relatively similar (r = 0.395, P < 0.05). In conclusion, agricultural activity could not only influence soil TN content, but also influence its spatial structure characteristics and spatial distribution pattern. Therefore, our study might promote the further study on the effect of land use change on soil nitrogen distribution pattern and its cycling in ecosystems.
