Effects of farmland conversion on the stoichiometry of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus in soil aggregates on the Loess Plateau of China

• DOI: 10.1016/j.geoderma.2019.05.037
• Publication Date: 2019-05-30T08:29:08Z
• Authors: Yi Zhang; Peng Li; Xiaojun Liu; Lie Xiao; Peng Shi; Binhua Zhao
• Keywords: 0401 agriculture, forestry, and fisheries; 04 agricultural and veterinary sciences; 15. Life on land

Abstract Stoichiometry is an important indicator of the elemental balance in ecological interactions and processes. The impact of change in land use on soil aggregates, however, is uncertain. We studied the effect of the conversion of sloping farmland (SF) to woodland (WO), grassland (GR), shrub-land (SH), and terraced fields (TE) on aggregate structure, stability, and stoichiometry in 0–20, 20–40, and 40–60 cm soil layers. The proportion of large aggregates (>0.25 mm) in WO, GR, SH, and TE increased by 71, 66, 46, and 35%, respectively. The conversion favoured the transformation from aggregation of 0.25 mm aggregates. As an indicator of particle size distribution and aggregate ability, the soil fractal dimension decreased significantly (P