Effects of adding water on seasonal variation of soil nitrogen availability under sandy grasslands in semi-arid region

Water is usally thought of a limiting factor for the restoration of semi-arid ecosystem. In the growing season of 2006, a study was conducted to determine the effects of modeling precipitation on seasonal patterns in concentrations of soil-available nitrogen and to describe the seasonal patterns in soil nitrogen availability and seasonal variation in the rates of net nitrogen mineralization of topsoil at Daqinggou ecological station in Keerqin sand lands, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China. Manipulation of water （80 mm） was designed to be added to experiment plots of sandy grasslands in dry season. Water addition （W） treatment and control （CK） treatment were separately taken in six replications and randomly assigned in 12 plots （4 m×4 m for each） with 2-m buffers betweens. Results showed that the content of soil inorganic nitrogen and net nitrogen mineralization rate were not affected by adding water in sandy grassland of Keerqin sand lands. Net ni- trogen mineralization rates ranged from 0.5μg·g^-1,month^-1 to 4 μg.g^-1.month^-1. The highest values of soil inorganic nitrogen and net nitrogen mineralization occurred on October 15 in control plots. The seasonal changes of soil inorganic nitrogen contents exhibited ＂V＂ shape pattern that was related to seasonal patterns of soil ammonium-N （ascending trend） and nitrate-N transformation （descending trend）.

Precipitation Pulses and Soil CO_2 Emission in Desert Shrubland of Artemisia ordosica on the Ordos Plateau of Inner Mongolia,China

Precipitation is the major driver of ecosystem functions and processes in semiarid and arid regions. In such waterlimited ecosystems, pulsed water inputs directly control the belowground processes through a series of soil drying and rewetting cycles. To investigate the effects of sporadic addition of water on soil CO2 effux, an artificial precipitation event （3 mm） was applied to a desert shrub ecosystem in the Mu Us Sand Land of the Ordos Plateau in China. Soil respiration rate increased 2.8 4.1 times immediately after adding water in the field, and then it returned to background level within 48 h. During the experiment, soil CO2 production was between 2 047.0 and 7 383.0 mg m^-2. In the shrubland, soil respiration responses showed spatial variations, having stronger pulse effects beneath the shrubs than in the interplant spaces. The spatial variation of the soil respiration responses was closely related with the heterogeneity of soil substrate availability. Apart from precipitation, soil organic carbon and total nitrogen pool were also identified as determinants of soil CO2 loss in desert ecosystems.

THE DYNAMIC MONITORING OF HORQIN SAND LAND USING REMOTE SENSING

Horqin Sand Land is regarded as the typical region for studying the problemof desertification. The integration of 3S(GIS, GPS and RS) techniques offer a roost helpful methodto study and monitor the dynamics of desertification. Based on the data derived from 3 periods'multitemporal Landsat TM imagery of the 1990s, the regional land use and dynamics of desertificationin Horqin Sand Land were studied. The main results revealed that: 1) as long as the general changetendency was concerned, the desertification of Horqin Sand Land would continue to spread; 2) therewas a gradual decrease in the area of both moving sand dunes and semi-stabilized ones, which meantthat fruitful progress had been made to control the desertification during the 1990s; 3) as a resultof unreasonable cultivation, the total area of stabilized sand dunes and grassland in the middleand western region decreased obviously. It suggested that the increasing damage caused by human wasleading to the hazard of further desertification. So in the future, it is necessary to take moreeffective measures to control the spread of desertification and restore the degraded ecosystems forthe purpose of optimizing the global eco-environment in Horqin Sand Land.