Response of aggregate associated organic carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous to re-vegetation in agro-pastoral ecotone of northern China

The agro-pastoral ecotone is an ecologically fragile transition zone and suffers from extensive human-induced land-use changes. To understand how soil organic carbon (OC) and nutrients will respond to re-vegetation practices in such an ecotone zone, we present the response of OC, nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in both bulk soils and water-stable aggregates to typical re-vegetation patterns in an agro-pastoral ecotone of northern China. Three re-vegetation patterns, i.e., cropland converted to natural grassland, woodland and artificial grassland at different times (6 to 40 years), were selected. The paired croplands were also selected as the control for each re-vegetation pattern. The measured soil metrics include the proportions of each type of water-stable aggregate, the mean weight diameter and geometric mean diameter of the aggregates, and the concentrations of OC, N and P in bulk soils and each aggregate fraction. The results showed that the three re-vegetation patterns significantly increased the mass proportion of macro-aggregates, the values of mean weight diameter and geometric mean diameter, and the concentrations of OC and N in topsoils (0-10 cm). The accumulation of OC and N in bulk soils was mainly due to the accumulation in macro-aggregates. Furthermore, increases in OC and N were greater after conversion to legume vegetation than to non-legume vegetation, and were highest at approximately 20 years after the conversion. However, concentrations of P in bulk soils and aggregates were similar among the three re-vegetation patterns and the three aggregate fractions, and were minimally affected by the conversion. These results highlighted the potential of legume vegetation to increase OC and N in surface soils and aggregates, and indicated no response of soil P to re-vegetation in an agro-pastoral ecotone of northern China.