Effects of land use and vegetation restoration on soil quality in a small catchment of the Loess Plateau

Abstract

Abstract: Soil quality improvement plays an important role in sustaining global biosphere.This paper studied the changes of soil quality after 25 years' land use and vegetation restoration at the Anjiapo catchment of western Loess Plateau.The analyses of soil characteristics of wasteland,almond land,farmland,pineland,shrub land and fallow land showed that different land use and vegetation restoration had different effects on soil integrated fertility index.Soil organic matter content was increased due to planting shrubs and forests.Both vegetation restoration and fallow could improve soil quality.Cultivation practice could decrease soil nutrient levels,and cropland soil was degraded.Shrub soil formed “fertile island” in the semi-arid region.Fallow could improve soil fertility to some extent.Human activities and vegetation restoration could affect soil nutrient contents after land use pattern was changed.With the launch out into the “Grand development of Western China”,“Grain for Green Project” and ecological restoration,both shrub planting and fallow(natural restoration)should be the optional choices to restore soil fertility,as they could decrease soil erosion and improve soil condition at catchment scale,especially in the hilly and gully loess area.Integrative control of small catchment may be the best way for the sustainable development of the semi-arid hilly area of Loess Plateau.

Key words: Land use/cover change, Soil nutrients, Soil quality, Vegetation restoration, Ecological reconstruction

CLC Number:

Q143

GONG Jie, CHEN Liding, FU Bojie, LI Yanmei, HUANG Zhilin, HUANG Yilong, PENG Hongjia . Effects of land use and vegetation restoration on soil quality in a small catchment of the Loess Plateau[J]. Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology, 2004, (12): 2292-2296.

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