Abstract: With the application of sulfur-coated controlled-release fertilizers (CRFs) in agriculture, much attention has been paid to the effects of the degraded CRFs sulfur coatings on soil environment. In this study, two types of representative agricultural soils in Shandong Province, i.e., Argosols and Cambosols, and three types of CRFs sulfurcoating residuals including polymersulfur residual, sulfur residual, and sulphur slice were selected to study the effects of the residuals on the soil properties of fertilized microsite and non-microsite separated by nylon net. In Agrosols, the residuals had significant effects on the fertilized microsite soil pH. In Cambosols, the residuals had little effects on the soil pH of fertilized microsite, but the soil pH of the microsite had more obvious decrease than that of the non-microsite. Sulfurcoating residuals had definite activation effects on soil microelements, especially on the available Fe in Cambosols, with the available Fe content being 6.58 times of the control for polymer-sulfur residual by the end of the experiment. Applying sulfurcoated CRFs in the Cambosols could activate soil nutrients, and increase the available sulfur and phosphorus contents. The prominent effect of the residuals on soil properties was observed within the microsite 5 mm around the sulfurcoatings.

Key words: Great Xing’an Mountains, Larix gmelinii, throughfall characteristics.