Key factors influencing on vegetation restoration in the gullies of the Mollisols

• Published in: Journal of environmental management 2021-12, Vol.299, p.113704-113704, Article 113704
• Main Authors: Zhang, Shaoliang, Xiao, Ziliang, Huo, Jiping, Zhang, Haijun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Biomass; Black soil; Nitrogen; Phosphorus; Soil moisture
• ISSN: 0301-4797; 1095-8630
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.113704

Natural vegetation restoration (NVR) highly relates to the development of gully erosion, and is mainly determined by both the soil properties and species competition in the gullies. However, it is still not clear what are the key factors influencing on the vegetation restoration in the gullies with the poor soil properties (e.g. low soil organic matter and nutrients) under the special hydrological process (e.g. high runoff intensity and long flow duration). In this study, soil total organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), available nitrogen (AN), ammonium nitrogen (NH4+-N), nitrate nitrogen (NO3−-N), total phosphorus (TP), available phosphorus (AP), pH, soil moisture (SM) were investigated, and both regression and structural equation model analysis were used for detecting how soil properties and species competition influence the herbaceous plants restoration in the poor quality of Mollisols in gullies of Northeast China. The results show that, (1) influence of NH4+-N, AN, TN, pH on biomass was stronger in 0–10 cm than that in 10–20 cm soil depth, opposite was stronger in 10–20 cm than that in 0–10 cm soil depth for NO3−-N, SOC and SM (P 20 mg kg−1 in 10–20 cm soil depth.•Increasing Poaceae could be optimal method to accelerate early vegetation restoration.