Response of the plant-soil system to desertification in the Hulun Buir Sandy Land, China

In this study, the vegetation and soils of different desertification landscapes (sandy grassland, and fixed, semi-fixed, semi-mobile, and mobile dunes) in the Hulun Buir Sandy Land were examined to quantify the impacts of desertification on plants, soils, and microbes, and the key limiting factors of restoration. Desertification caused soil quality to decline and led to an imbalance of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) supplies (N:P ratios decreased significantly from 3.55-1.8, p < 0.05). Desertification did not change the stoichiometric relationships among plant carbon (C), N, and P at a community level, but promoted redistribution of nutrients from roots to aboveground tissues. The aboveground biomass N and P increased by 9.8% and 39.3%, respectively from grassland to mobile dunes, but these of the underground biomass decreased by 26.1% and 37.7%, respectively. N limitation (plant N:P < 10) occurred at the community level. Desertification led to the change of dominant species from perennial herbs to annual psammophytes, and plant diversity (from 1.15-0.79) and productivity (from 880.6 to 128.6 g m(-2)) first increased slightly (p > 0.05) and then decreased sharply (p < 0.05) with increasing desertification, but with no significant (p > 0.05) change of the microbial community. Redundancy analysis showed that the main environmental drivers were the soil N:P (with an explanation of 29.6%), followed by pH, electrical conductivity, and the soil's fine particles (with a total explanation of 24.3%). Based on these results, three reference frames were proposed for the restoration of the near-original vegetation community.

Automated summary

In this study, the impacts of desertification on vegetation, soils, and microbes were examined in different desertification landscapes in the Hulun Buir Sandy Land. Desertification resulted in declining soil quality and imbalanced nitrogen and phosphorus supplies. The stoichiometric relationships among plant carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus remained unchanged at a community level, but nutrient redistribution occurred from roots to aboveground tissues. The dominant species shifted from perennial herbs to annual psammophytes as desertification increased, and plant diversity and productivity initially increased slightly and then sharply decreased.