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Characteristics of soil organic carbon and enzyme activities in soil aggregates under different vegetation zones on the Loess Plateau.

LI Xin1,2, MA Rui-ping1,3, AN Shao-shan1,2, ZENG Quan-chao4, LI Ya-yun1,2   

  1. (1College of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China; 2State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China; 3Institute of Agricultural Resources and Environment, Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Sciences of Tibet Autonomous Region, Lasa 850032, China; 4Research Center of Soil and Water Conversation and Ecological Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Education, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China)
  • Online:2015-08-18 Published:2015-08-18

Abstract: In order to explore the distribution characteristics of organic carbon of different forms and the active enzymes in soil aggregates with different particle sizes, soil samples were chosen from forest zone, forestgrass zone and grass zone in the Yanhe watershed of Loess Plateau to study the content of organic carbon, easily oxidized carbon, and humus carbon, and the activities of cellulase, β-Dglucosidase, sucrose, urease and peroxidase, as well as the relations between the soil aggregates carbon and its components with the active soil enzymes were also analyzed. It was showed that the content of organic carbon and its components were in order of forest zone > grass zone >  forestgrass zone, and the contents of three forms of organic carbon were the highest in the diameter group of 0.25-2 mm. The content of organic carbon and its components, as well as the activities of soil enzymes were higher in the soil layer of 0-10 cm than those in the 10-20 cm soil layer of different vegetation zones. The activities of cellulase, β-Dglucosidase, sucrose and urease were in order of forest zone > grass zone > forestgrass zone. The peroxidase activity was in order of forest zone > forestgrass zone > grass zone. The activities of various soil enzymes increased with the decreasing soil particle diameter in the three vegetation zones. The activities of cellulose, peroxidase, sucrose and urease had significant positive correlations with the contents of various forms of organic carbon in the soil aggregates.