Journal
JOURNAL OF ARID ENVIRONMENTS
Volume 189, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS LTD- ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.jaridenv.2021.104503
Keywords
Fertile islands; Desert shrub; Fine roots; Soil texture
Categories
Funding
- Doctoral Start-up Fund of Shanxi Normal University [0505/02070440]
- Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences [QYZDJ-SSW-DQC014]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [U1703332, 41671115]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The study indicates that the distribution of fine roots along the soil profile promotes fertile islands extending from the surface to deep soils. Soil texture affects fine root distribution, which consequently modulates the intensity of fertile islands.
Fertile islands play an important role in ecosystem structure and function. However, studies on the effects of fine roots of desert shrubson fertile islands in contrasting textured soils are scarce. We investigated soil water and nutrient contents, microbial biomass, fine root densities of Haloxylon ammodendron (C.A.Mey.), and their enrichment indices along a soil profile (100 cm deep and 200 cm wide) in two soils: Torripsamment (coarse-textured) and Haplocalcid (fine-textured). In both soils, water and nutrient contents, microbial biomass, and fine root densities decreased with increasing distance from the taproot. Their enrichment indices exceeded 1.0, except at the 190 cm distance from the taproot. Compared with the Haplocalcid, the Torripsamment had higher enrichment levels for all parameters, which mainly occurred at 0-20 and 20-60 cm depths. The enrichment indices of fine root densities were positively related to those of soil variables at similar depths, and the relationships were more intense in the Torripsamment than in the Haplocalcid at 0-20 and 20-60 cm depths. These results suggest that fine root distribution along the soil profile promotes fertile islands extending from the surface to deep soils. Soil texture affects fine root distribution and consequently modulates the intensity of fertile islands.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available