Changes of Soil Water, Organic Matter, and Exchangeable Cations Along a Forest Successional Gradient in Southern China

Information on the distribution patterns of soil water content （SWC）, soil organic matter （SOM）, and soil exchangeable cations （SEC） is important for managing forest ecosystems in a sustainable manner. This study investigated how SWC, SOM, and SEC were influenced in forests along a successional gradient, including a regional climax （monsoon evergreen broad-leaved forest, or MEBF）, a transitional forest （coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forest, or MF）, and a pioneer forest （coniferous Masson pine （Pinus rnassoniana） forest, or MPF） of the Dinghushan Biosphere Reserve in the subtropical region of southern China. SWC, SOM, and SEC excluding Ca^2＋ were found to increase in the soil during forest succession, being highest in the top soil layer （0 to 15 cm depth） except for Na^＋. The differences between soil layers were largest in MF. This finding also suggested that the nutrients were enriched in the topsoil when they became increasingly scarce in the soil. There were no significant differences （P = 0.05） among SWC, SOM, and SEC. A linear, positive correlation was found between SWC and SOM. The correlation between SOM and cation exchange capacity （CEC） was statistically significant, which agreed with the theory that the most important factor determining SEC is SOM. The ratio of K^＋ to Na^＋ in the topsoil was about a half of that in the plants of each forest. MF had the lowest exchangeable Ca^2＋ concentration among the three forests and Ca^2＋：K^＋ in MPF was two times higher than that in MF. Understanding the changes of SWC, SOM, and CEC during forest succession would be of great help in protecting all three forests in southern China.

Sheep manure application increases soil exchangeable base cations in a semi-arid steppe of Inner Mongolia

The long-term productivity of a soil is greatly influenced by cation exchange capacity（CEC）.Moreover,interactions between dominant base cations and other nutrients are important for the health and stability of grassland ecosystems.Soil exchangeable base cations and cation ratios were examined in a 11-year experiment with sheep manure application rates 0–1,500 g/（m2？a） in a semi-arid steppe in Inner Mongolia of China,aiming to clarify the relationships of base cations with soil p H,buffer capacity and fertility.Results showed that CEC and contents of exchangeable calcium（Ca2＋）,magnesium（Mg2＋）,potassium（K＋） and sodium（Na＋） were significantly increased,and Ca2＋ saturation tended to decrease,while K＋ saturation tended to increase with the increases of sheep manure application rates.The Ca2＋/Mg2＋ and Ca2＋/K＋ ratios decreased,while Mg2＋,K＋ and Na＋ saturations increased with increasing manure application rates.Both base cations and CEC were significantly and positively correlated with soil organic carbon（SOC） and soil p H.The increases of SOC and soil p H would be the dominant factors that contribute to the increase of cations in soil.On a comparison with the initial soil p H before the experiment,we deduced that sheep manure application could partly buffer soil p H decrease potentially induced by atmospheric deposition of nitrogen and sulfur.Our results indicate that sheep manure application is beneficial to the maintenance of base cations and the buffering of soil acidification,and therefore can improve soil fertility in the semi-arid steppes of northeastern China.

Influence of the Storage Duration at Different Temperatures on the Concentrations of Extractable Inorganic Soil Nutrients

The influence of the short storage periods at different temperatures on the concentrations of extractable soil cations (Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+ and K+) and anions (Cl-, SO4- and PO4- ) has been investigated in nine soil samples from Nile river terraces at River Nile State, North of Sudan (17.82289 to 17.82389N and 33.99974 to 34.02127E). Each soil extract is divided into three treatments: i) control (immediately analyzed);ii) storage for 10 days and;iii) storage for 30 days. Each treatment is replicated three times: i) storage at 10°C;ii) storage at ambient laboratory temperature (25°C) and;iii) storage at 45°C in incubator. Statistical analysis of results reveals that significant difference are found at level (P - and PO4- (0.043, 0.002, 0.001, 0.021, 0.004 and 0.001) respectively at 25°C and 45°C and storage periods of 10 and 30 days. In contrast, significant difference is also found at level (P - concentrations are significantly decreased when the storage period exceeds 10 days and temperature more than 25°C. Depending upon our study results;we conclude that, all extractable inorganic nutrients are clearly affected by storage periods at various temperatures, exception of Na+. Most cations and anions are increased significantly with increased of storage period and temperatures. We therefore highly recommend that the extractable inorganic soil nutrients should be rapidly analyzed in order to obtain accurate results;otherwise, the time between extraction and analysis should be carefully recorded which may help considerably interpreting data from various studies.

Cokriging of Soil Cation Exchange Capacity Using the First Principal Component Derived from Soil Physico-Chemical Properties

As soil cation exchange capacity （CEC） is a vital indicator of soil quality and pollutant sequestration capacity,a study was conducted to evaluate cokriging of CEC with the principal components derived from soil physico-chemical properties.In Qingdao,China,107 soil samples were collected.Soil CEC was estimated by using 86 soil samples for prediction and 21 soil samples for test.The first two principal components （PC1 and PC2） together explained 60.2% of the total variance of soil physico-chemical properties.The PC1 was highly correlated with CEC （r=0.76,P0.01）,whereas there was no significant correlation between CEC and PC2 （r=0.03）.The PC1 was then used as an auxiliary variable for the prediction of soil CEC.Mean error （ME） and root mean square error （RMSE） of kriging for the test dataset were-1.76 and 3.67 cmolc kg-1,and ME and RMSE of cokriging for the test dataset were-1.47 and 2.95 cmolc kg-1,respectively.The cross-validation R2 for the prediction dataset was 0.24 for kriging and 0.39 for cokriging.The results show that cokriging with PC1 is more reliable than kriging for spatial interpolation.In addition,principal components have the highest potential for cokriging predictions when the principal components have good correlations with the primary variables.

Coastal afforestation effects on soil properties at Hatiya in Bangladesh

An exploratory study was conducted in the coastal plantation （12- and 17-year-old Sonneratia apetala） of Char Alim and Char Piya and on their adjacent barren lands at Char Rehania and Char Nurul Islam in Hatiya of Noakhali district, in Bangladesh to determine afforestation effects on soil properties. At soil depths of 0-10, 10-30 and 30-40 cm across three different land strips viz. inland, middle and sea side in 12- and 17-year-old keora （Sonneratia apetala） plantations, soil moisture, particle density, organic matter and C, total N, pH, available P, K, Na, Ca and Mg were significantly （p≤0.05, p≤0.01, p≤0.001） higher, and soil salinity significantly （p〈0.001） lower than that in their adjacent barren lands. Soil moisture, particle density, organic matter and C, total N, pH, soil salinity, available P, K, Na, Ca and Mg of surface soil in Char Alim plantation at inland were 31.09%, 2.24 g.cm^-3, 2.41%, 4.14%, 0.58%, 7.07, 0.09 dS＇cm^-1, 28.06 mg.L^-1, 0.50 mg-L^- 1 11.5 mg-L^-1, 3.30 mg·L^-1 and 2.7 mmol.kg^-1, respectively. Their corresponding values for the same depth and land position at adjacent Char Rehania barren land were 16.69%, 1.25g.cm^-3, 0.43%, 0.74%, 0.25%, 6.57, 0.13 dS.cm^-1, 13.07mg-L^-1, 0.30 mg.L^-1, 1.4 mg.L^-1, 0.30 mmol·kg^-1 and 0.50 mg.L^-1, respectively. Soil moisture, particle density, organic matter and C, total N, pH, available P, K and Ca decreased, and soil salinity, available Na and Mg increased from inland towards sea side in the plantations. Although soil texture did not differ in most soil depths between plantation and adjacent barren land, proportion of sand particle was significantly （p≤0.01） lower and silt particle significantly （p〈0.001） in the plantations higher than that in their adjacent barren lands. In the study, evaluation of all the parameters was also done for the other pair of lands.

Effect of natural and anthropogenic acidifi cation on aluminium distribution in forest soils of two regions in the Czech Republic

To elucidate the dynamics of aluminium(Al),an element potentially toxic and strongly aff ected by acidifi cation processes,in soils,we selected two regions that were similar in relief,soil types,and vegetation cover but diff ered markedly in their history of acid precipitation:the JizerskéMountains(anthropogenically acidifi ed)and the NovohradskéMountains(naturally acidifi ed)in the Czech Republic.The levels of Al forms(exchangeable and organically bound)associated with diff erent environmental impacts were measured and univalent,divalent and trivalent Al species were quantifi ed using HPLC/IC.Exchangeable and organically bound Al concentrations were higher in the anthropogenically acidifi ed area.Only the concentrations of the leastdangerous species,the univalent,in organic soil horizons were similar for both mountains.The concentrations of exchangeable Al forms were correlated with Ca concentrations and with pH in the organic horizon.The known relationship of Al with soil pH was stronger in the mineral horizons.Relationships of exchangeable Al forms concentrations with sulphur concentrations or even more with the sulphur calcium molar ratio were found only in the JizerskéMountains,not in the Novohradské.Generally,the obtained results support the hypothesis that mechanisms diff ered between natural and anthropogenic acidifi cation.

Coastal afforestation effects on soil properties at Hatiya in Bangladesh

An exploratory study was conducted in the coastal plantation (12-and 17-year-old Sonneratia apetala) of Char Alim and Char Piya and on their adjacent barren lands at Char Rehania and Char Nurul Islam in Hatiya of Noakhali district, in Bangladesh to determine afforestation effects on soil properties. At soil depths of 0-10, 10-30 and 30-40 cm across three different land strips viz. inland, middle and sea side in 12-and 17-year-old keora (Sonneratia apetala) plantations, soil moisture, particle density, organic matter and C, total N, pH, available P, K, Na, Ca and Mg were significantly (p≤0.05, p≤0.01, p≤0.001) higher, and soil salinity significantly (p≤0.001) lower than that in their adjacent barren lands. Soil moisture, particle density, organic matter and C, total N, pH, soil salinity, available P, K, Na, Ca and Mg of surface soil in Char Alim plantation at inland were 31.09%, 2.24 g·cm-3, 2.41%, 4.14%, 0.58%, 7.07, 0.09 dS·cm-1, 28.06 mg·L-1, 0.50 mg·L-1 11.5 mg·L-1, 3.30 mg·L-1 and 2.7 mmol·kg-1, respectively. Their corresponding values for the same depth and land position at adjacent Char Rehania barren land were 16.69%, 1.25g·cm-3, 0.43%, 0.74%, 0.25%, 6.57, 0.13 dS·cm-1, 13.07mg·L-1, 0.30 mg·L-1, 1.4 mg·L-1, 0.30 mmol·kg-1 and 0.50 mg·L-1, respectively. Soil moisture, particle density, organic matter and C, total N, pH, available P, K and Ca decreased, and soil salinity, available Na and Mg increased from inland towards sea side in the plantations. Although soil texture did not differ in most soil depths between plantation and adjacent barren land, proportion of sand particle was significantly (p≤0.01) lower and silt particle significantly (p≤0.001) in the plantations higher than that in their adjacent barren lands. In the study, evaluation of all the parameters was also done for the other pair of lands.

Cat Swarm with Fuzzy Cognitive Maps for Automated Soil Classification

Accurate soil prediction is a vital parameter involved to decide appro-priate crop,which is commonly carried out by the farmers.Designing an auto-mated soil prediction tool helps to considerably improve the efficacy of the farmers.At the same time,fuzzy logic(FL)approaches can be used for the design of predictive models,particularly,Fuzzy Cognitive Maps(FCMs)have involved the concept of uncertainty representation and cognitive mapping.In other words,the FCM is an integration of the recurrent neural network(RNN)and FL involved in the knowledge engineering phase.In this aspect,this paper introduces effective fuzzy cognitive maps with cat swarm optimization for automated soil classifica-tion(FCMCSO-ASC)technique.The goal of the FCMCSO-ASC technique is to identify and categorize seven different types of soil.To accomplish this,the FCMCSO-ASC technique incorporates local diagonal extrema pattern(LDEP)as a feature extractor for producing a collection of feature vectors.In addition,the FCMCSO model is applied for soil classification and the weight values of the FCM model are optimally adjusted by the use of CSO algorithm.For exam-ining the enhanced soil classification outcomes of the FCMCSO-ASC technique,a series of simulations were carried out on benchmark dataset and the experimen-tal outcomes reported the enhanced performance of the FCMCSO-ASC technique over the recent techniques with maximum accuracy of 96.84%.

Effects of bile salts and divalent cations on the adsorption of norfloxacin by agricultural soils

The effects of bile salts （sodium cholate and sodium deoxycholate, 0-20 mmol/L）, divalent cations （Ca^2＋, Mg^2＋, Cu^2＋ and Zn^2＋, 0-20 mmol/L） or pH （3.0-10.0） on the adsorption of norfloxacin by three selected soils （Paddy_H, Paddy_G and Red_J） were systematically studied. Soil adsorption of norfloxacin follows a pseudo second-order kinetics model, and the maximum adsorption capacity has been determined from the nonlinear fit of the Langmuir isotherm model to be 88.8, 88.1 and 63.0 μmol/g for the adsorption onto Paddy_H, Paddy_G and Red_J, respectively. The results indicate that norfloxacin has a high adsorption affinity for the agricultural soils tested and that the organic content of these soils have at least a slight influence on this adsorption. The adsorption of norfloxacin to soils was strongly dependent on pH and exhibited a maximum at approximately pH 6. The presence of divalent cations prominently suppressed the adsorption of norfloxacin by paddy soils, which followed an order of Cu^2＋ 〉 Mg^2＋ 〉 Ca^2＋ 〉 Zn^2＋, and by red soil, which followed an order of Cu^2＋ 〉 Zn^2＋ 〉 Ca^2＋ 〉 Mg^2＋. The adsorption of norfloxacin （by the soils studied） sharply decreased as the amount of bile salts was increased. For uncharged norfloxacin at environmentally relevant pH values, such factors as soil type, exogenous divalent cations and macromolecules significantly altered the environmental fate and transport of norfloxacin between aquatic and soil interfaces.

Effect of algal flocculation on dissolved organic matters using cationic starch modified soils

Modified soils（MSs） are being increasingly used as geo-engineering materials for the sedimentation removal of cyanobacterial blooms. Cationic starch（CS） has been tested as an effective soil modifier, but little is known about its potential impacts on the treated water.This study investigated dissolved organic matters in the bloom water after algal removal using cationic starch modified soils（CS-MSs）. Results showed that the dissolved organic carbon（DOC） could be decreased by CS-MS flocculation and the use of higher charge density CS yielded a greater DOC reduction. When CS with the charge density of 0.052, 0.102 and0.293 meq/g were used, DOC was decreased from 3.4 to 3.0, 2.3 and 1.7 mg/L, respectively.The excitation–emission matrix fluorescence spectroscopy and UV254 analysis indicated that CS-MS exhibits an ability to remove some soluble organics, which contributed to the DOC reduction. However, the use of low charge density CS posed a potential risk of DOC increase due to the high CS loading for effective algal removal. When CS with the charge density of 0.044 meq/g was used, DOC was increased from 3.4 to 3.9 mg/L. This study suggested, when CS-MS is used for cyanobacterial bloom removal, the content of dissolved organic matters in the treated water can be controlled by optimizing the charge density of CS. For the settled organic matters, other measures（e.g., capping treatments using oxygen loaded materials） should be jointly applied after algal flocculation.