Effects of Vegetation Restoration Type on Soil Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Associated Microbial Regulation on the Loess Plateau.

Investigating responses of soil greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to vegetation restoration is important for global warming mitigation. On the Loess Plateau, a wide range of vegetation restoration strategies have been implemented to control land degradation. However, the thorough quantification of soil GHG emissions triggered by different modes of vegetation restoration is insufficient.

Yield, Quality, and Nitrogen Leaching of Open-Field Tomato in Response to Different Nitrogen Application Measures in Northwestern China.

The overuse of fertilizers in open-field tomato leads to soil deterioration through nutrient leaching and increases the risk of agricultural non-point source contamination. Currently, the combined effects of different fertilization methods on soil nitrogen leaching and tomato production are still unclear. Therefore, the most effective fertilization method for open-field tomato should be discovered by examining how different fertilization methods affected tomato yield and quality, nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), and soil nitrogen leaching.

Responses of soil dissolved organic carbon properties to the desertification of desert wetlands in the Mu Us Sandy Land.

In desert wetlands, the decline in ground water table results in desertification, triggering soil carbon and nutrient loss. However, the impacts of desertification on soil dissolved organic carbon (DOC) properties which determine the turnover of soil carbon and nutrients are unclear. Here, the desertification gradient was represented by the distance from the wetland center (0∼240 m) traversing reed marshes, desert shrubs and bare sandy land in the Hongjian Nur Basin, north China.

Root carbon and soil temperature may be key drivers of below-ground biomass in grassland following prescribed fires in autumn and spring.

Under global warming, fire and the season in which the fire occurs both have important impacts on grassland plant biomass. Still, the effect of fire on below-ground biomass (BB) along a natural aridity gradient and the main impact factors remain unclear. Here, we conducted a fire manipulation experiment (including un-fired, autumn fire and spring fire treatments) to investigate the effects of prescribed fire on BB and its critical determinants along a transect of grassland in northern China.

Mechanism of groundwater recharge in the thick loess deposits by multiple environmental tracers.

The loess-covered region accounts for ∼10 % of global land surface. Because of dry climate and thick vadose zones, the subsurface water flux is low but the water storage is relatively large . As a result, the groundwater recharge mechanism is complicated and currently controversial (e.

Changes in soil prokaryotic communities and nitrogen cycling functions along a groundwater table drawdown gradient in desert wetlands.

Desert wetlands are evolving into deserts by groundwater table (GWT) drawdown. However, the changes in microbial communities and functions during the GWT drawdown are unclear, which hinders the predictive power of biogeochemical processes across the desertification. Here, 16S rRNA gene sequencing, PICRUSt2 and qPCR were used to investigate soil prokaryotic diversity, composition and nitrogen cycling gene abundance at four vegetation types [flooded swamp (FS), drained swamp (DS), desert grassland (DG), and bare sandy land (BS)] along a GWT decline gradient in the Mu Us Desert, northern China.

Spatial and seasonal variability, control factors and health risk of fluoride in natural water in the Loess Plateau of China.

Hundreds of millions of people around the world are currently exposed to excessive amounts of fluoride (F) in drinking water. Although the factors controlling the spatiotemporal distribution of F contents have been analyzed, their contributions have rarely been quantified. In this study, 510 water samples were collected in the dry and wet seasons in China's Loess Plateau to investigate the spatial and seasonal distribution, controlling factors, and potential health risks of F in natural water.

Oil degradation and variation of microbial communities in contaminated soils induced by different bacterivorous nematodes species.

Oil pollution poses a great threat to environments and makes the remediation of oil-contaminated soils an urgent task. Microorganisms are the main biological factor for oil removal in the environment but microbial remediation is greatly affected by environmental factors. For our research, we inoculated three species of bacterivorous nematodes into oil-contaminated soil to explore how bacterivorous nematodes affect soil microbial activities and community structure in contaminated soil, as well as how efficiently different nematodes remove oil pollution from the soil.

Changes in microbial metabolic C- and N- limitations in the rhizosphere and bulk soils along afforestation chronosequence in desertified ecosystems.

The resource acquisition strategy of soil microorganisms can be reflected by soil extracellular enzyme activity (EEA). However, there are few reports on the application of extracellular enzyme stoichiometry (EES) method to study the difference in microbial metabolic nutrient limitation between rhizosphere and bulk soil. Here, we choose the rhizosphere and bulk soils of Pinus sylvestris var.

Distribution, Origins and Hazardous Effects of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Topsoil Surrounding Oil Fields: A Case Study on the Loess Plateau, China.

The Loess Plateau has one of the most vulnerable ecological environments in the world, but it also contains abundant oil and gas resources that are regularly exploited, which has resulted in serious environmental problems. Therefore, it is important to analyze the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) present in the topsoil of this region. The ∑16PAHs concentrations between 1980-1999 and 2000-2019 ranged from 1134.

The WEPP Model Application in a Small Watershed in the Loess Plateau.

In the Loess Plateau, soil erosion has not only caused serious ecological and environmental problems but has also impacted downstream areas. Therefore, a model is needed to guide the comprehensive control of soil erosion. In this study, we introduced the WEPP model to simulate soil erosion both at the slope and watershed scales.

Increasing aridity, temperature and soil pH induce soil C-N-P imbalance in grasslands.

Due to the different degrees of controls exerted by biological and geochemical processes, climate changes are suggested to uncouple biogeochemical C, N and P cycles, influencing biomass accumulation, decomposition and storage in terrestrial ecosystems. However, the possible extent of such disruption in grassland ecosystems remains unclear, especially in China's steppes which have undergone rapid climate changes with increasing drought and warming predicted moving forward in these dryland ecosystems. Here, we assess how soil C-N-P stoichiometry is affected by climatic change along a 3500-km temperate climate transect in Inner Mongolia, China.

Effects of Pisha sandstone content on solute transport in a sandy soil.

In sandy soil, water, nutrients and even pollutants are easily leaching to deeper layers. The objective of this study was to assess the effects of Pisha sandstone on soil solute transport in a sandy soil. The miscible displacement technique was used to obtain breakthrough curves (BTCs) of Br(-) as an inert non-adsorbed tracer and Na(+) as an adsorbed tracer.

The combined effects of moss-dominated biocrusts and vegetation on erosion and soil moisture and implications for disturbance on the Loess Plateau, China.

Biological soil crusts (BSCs, or biocrusts) have important positive ecological functions such as erosion control and soil fertility improvement, and they may also have negative effects on soil moisture in some cases. Simultaneous discussions of the two-sided impacts of BSCs are key to the rational use of this resource. This study focused on the contribution of BSCs while combining with specific types of vegetation to erosion reduction and their effects on soil moisture, and it addressed the feasibility of removal or raking disturbance.

Correction: Spatial Analysis of Soil Organic Carbon in Zhifanggou Catchment of the Loess Plateau.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Spatial analysis of soil organic carbon in Zhifanggou catchment of the Loess Plateau.

Soil organic carbon (SOC) reflects soil quality and plays a critical role in soil protection, food safety, and global climate changes. This study involved grid sampling at different depths (6 layers) between 0 and 100 cm in a catchment. A total of 1282 soil samples were collected from 215 plots over 8.

[Profile variability of soil properties in check dam on the Loess Plateau and its functions].

To understand the profile variability of soil properties of check dam and its possibility of engineering control over non-point source pollution, we used classical statistics to characterize the profile change of soil properties of a 5.20 m depth soil profile in the typical check dam on the Loess Plateau. The roles of check dam as organic carbon storage and available nutrients storage were discussed.