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Acta Prataculturae Sinica ›› 2024, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (7): 25-40.DOI: 10.11686/cyxb2023310

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Effect of grazing exclusion on soil carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus contents and enzyme activity and stoichiometry in Seriphidium transiliense desertgrasslands

Si-yuan LI1(), Zong-jiu SUN1,2,3(), Bing-jie YU1, Chen-ye ZHOU1, Lei ZHOU1, Li ZHENG1, Hui-xia LIU1, Hua-wei YE1   

  1. 1.College of Grassland Science,Xinjiang Agricultural University,Urumqi 830052,China
    2.Key Laboratory of Grassland Resources and Ecology of Western Arid Region,Ministry of Education,Urumqi 830052,China
    3.Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Grassland Resources and Ecology,Urumqi 830052,China
  • Received:2023-08-31 Revised:2023-11-09 Online:2024-07-20 Published:2024-04-08
  • Contact: Zong-jiu SUN

Abstract:

It is important to determine the changes in soil enzyme activity and enzyme stoichiometry during grazing exclusion to understand how vegetation restoration affects soil nutrient availability, and to elucidate the mechanisms of nutrient cycling in ecosystems. In this study, therefore, the responses of soil in sagebrush desert grassland to 6 years of grazing exclusion were initially analyzed by measuring soil carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) contents, as well as soil enzyme activities and their stoichiometry. The results showed that: 1) There were no significant changes in soil organic C, total N, and total P contents, soil C/P, soil N/P, soil leucine aminopeptidase, alkaline phosphatase activities and soil enzyme C/N, in the 0-20 cm soil layer after grazing exclusion. The activities of β-1, 4-glucosidase in April and β-1, 4-N-acetylglucosaminidase in July Manasi showed an increasing trend, compared with those in the control, after grazing exclusion; 2) Grazing exclusion significantly affected the soil C/N in July Manasi, increased soil enzyme C/P in April, and decreased soil enzyme N/P values in July Manasi. In a vector analysis, the vector lengths of all samples increased significantly in April after grazing exclusion, and the vector lengths of all samples before and after grazing exclusion were greater than 45°, suggesting that the soil microorganisms in the study area were mainly limited by C and P; 3) The results of a redundancy analysis showed that soil C, N, and P contents and their stoichiometric characteristics explained 56.03% of the variance in soil enzyme activity and stoichiometric and vector characteristics after grazing exclusion. These results indicate that soil organic C content may be the main factor influencing the activity of soil enzymes and their characteristics in sagebrush desert grasslands.

Key words: sagebrush desert, soil enzyme activities, stoichiometric characteristics, grazing exclusion