ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Plant-Soil Stoichiometric Characteristics
and Their Influencing Factors
in the Pisha Stone Area
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1
Faculty of Modern Agricultural Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650500, China
2
Key Laboratory of Soil and Water Conservation on the Loess Plateau of Ministry of Water Resources,
Yellow River Institute of Hydraulic Research, Zhengzhou 450003, China
3
Water and Soil Conservation Monitoring Center of Ministry of Water Resources, Beijing 100053, China
Submission date: 2023-08-13
Final revision date: 2023-09-22
Acceptance date: 2023-10-02
Online publication date: 2023-12-28
Publication date: 2024-02-09
Corresponding author
Zhenzhou Shen
Key Laboratory of Soil and Water Conservation on the Loess Plateau of Ministry of Water Resources,
Yellow River Institute of Hydraulic Research, Zhengzhou 450003, China
Binbin Li
Water and Soil Conservation Monitoring Center of Ministry of Water Resources, Beijing 100053, China
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2024;33(2):1887-1898
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ABSTRACT
Planting alfalfa is one of the biological measures to manage the Pisha stone area in the Yellow
River Basin, where soil erosion is serious, and the ecosystem is extremely fragile. The characteristics
and driving factors of plant-soil ecological stoichiometry during the planting process of the loess layer
(LL) (0-90 cm) and Pisha stone layer (PSL) (90-180 cm) were studied to reveal the limiting factors
of plant-soil nutrients and the driving mechanism of ecosystem evolution in this area. In this study,
the correlation between the contents of carbon (C), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and their ratios
in alfalfa and soil with different planting years (2, 5, 8, and 10 yr) was measured. Plant-soil C, N, and P
stoichiometry characteristics were explored to analyze the influence mechanisms of fallow years and soil
layers. The results showed that the changes of C, N, and P in alfalfa were similar to those of soil organic
carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) in LL. Alfalfa C/N was significantly
positively correlated with soil C/P and N/P. Alfalfa growth is limited by N in the early stages and P
in the middle and late stages, which can provide a theoretical basis for vegetation restoration and soil
erosion management in the Pisha stone region. This study investigated the stochastic properties of the
alfalfa-soil continuum and its fluctuations with the planting year.