Using Le Bissonnais method to study the stability of soil aggregates in plantations and its influence mechanism

ABSTRACT

To evaluate the influence of different plantations on the stability of soil aggregates, we selected 5 typical plantations in south subtropical region: Pinus massoniana (PM), Cunninghamia lanceolata (CL), Eucalyptus urophylla×E. grandis (EU), Mytilaria laosensis (ML) and Castanopsis hystrix (CM). Soil aggregate stability was determined by the Le Bissonnais method and included three disruptive treatments. FW caused the greatest damage to the soil aggregate structure, after which the soil aggregates were mainly 0.2–0.5 mm in size. The MWD and GMD values of the three treatments were basically the same, i.e., WS > SW > FW, and gradually decreased with increasing soil depth. Compared to the plantations, the natural forest had higher MWD and GMD but lower RSI and RMI. Among the 5 plantation types, the SOM of the EU was lowest in five soil layers. SOM, Fe and Al had significantly positive correlations with MWD but negative correlations with Mn (p < 0.05), which indicated that SOM, Fe and Al were involved in the formation of macroaggregates and increased the stability of soil aggregates. Reasonable forest management measures will contribute to the formation of soil aggregates and the improvement of soil quality.

KEYWORDS:

• Plantation
• Soil aggregate stability
• Le Bissonnais method
• Southern subtropical region

Acknowledgements

We thanked Wanxia Huang, Juan Huang and Zhe Lin for their contributions during the experiments, Jinyue Wang and Xuemei Wei conducted the map figure. We also thanked the editor and the reviewers for giving us constructive suggestions.

Author contributions

Y.D. (Yusong Deng), G.Y. (Gairen Yang), D.J. (Daihua Jiang), Z.H. (Zhigang Huang) and L.W. (Ling Wang) conceived the project; L.L. (Liwen Lin) and Y.D. (Yusong Deng) conducted field work; L.L. (Liwen Lin), D.L. (Deyang Liu) and Z.X. (Zhenxin Xu) conducted the experiments and analyzed the data; L.L. (Liwen Lin) wrote the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Financial support for this research was provided by the Central Government Guides the Development of Local Science and Technology Project (No. ZY20198007), the Guangxi Science and Technology Talent Base (No. AD17195098), the Major Scientific and Technological Projects in Guangxi (No. AA17204078-2) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41630858).