Spatial and temporal variations in nitrogen retention effects in a subtropical mountainous basin in Southeast China

Nitrogen retention within a watershed reduces the amount of N exported to the ocean;however, it worsens environmental problems, including surface water eutrophication, aquifer pollution, acid rain, and soil acidification. Here, we adopted the Soil and Water Assessment Tool(SWAT) model to describe the riverine N output and retention effects in the Shanmei Reservoir Basin, a subtropical mountainous basin located in Quanzhou City, Southeast China. The results revealed that farmlands and orchards in the upstream and central parts of the basin were the dominant land use types, which contributed large N yields. Fertilizer application was the key source of riverine N output and N retention within the basin. On average, approximately 64% of anthropogenic N inputs were retained within the basin, whereas 36% of total N was exported to the downstream and coastal areas. The average N retention efficiency was 80% in a dry year, and within the year, N retention occurred in spring and summer and N release occurred in autumn and winter. The annual variation in N retention within the basin was largely dominated by changes in rainfall and runoff, whereas the seasonal characteristics of N retention were mainly affected by fertilization. Even with a large decrease in fertilizer application, owing to the contributions of the residual N pool and river background, the riverine N output still maintained a certain base value. The effects of precipitation, land use types, and agricultural fertilizer on N retention should be comprehensively considered to implement reasonable N management measures.

Soil respiration under three different land use types in a tropical mountain region of China

Soil respiration (SR) Wis one of the largest contributors of terrestrial CO_2 to the atmosphere.Environmental as well as physicochemical parameters influence SR and thus, different land use practices impact the emissions of soil CO_2. In this study, we measured SR, bi-monthly, over a one-year period in a terrace tea plantation, a forest tea plantation and a secondary forest, in a subtropical mountain area in Xishuangbanna, China. Along with the measurement of SR rates, soil characteristics for each of the land use systems were investigated. Soil respiration rates in the different land use systems did not differ significantly during the dry season, ranging from2.7±0.2 μmol m^(-2) s^(-1) to 2.8±0.2 μmol m^(-2) s^(-1). During the wet season, however, SR rates were significantly larger in the terrace tea plantation(5.4±0.5 μmol m^(-2)s^(-1)) and secondary forest(4.9±0.4 μmol m^(-2)s^(-1)) than in the forest tea plantation(3.7±0.2 μmol m^(-2) s^(-1)).This resulted in significantly larger annual soil CO_2 emissions from the terrace tea and secondary forest,than from the forest tea plantation. It is likely that these differences in the SR rates are due to the 0.5times lower soil organic carbon concentrations in thetop mineral soil in the forest tea plantation, compared to the terrace tea plantation and secondary forest.Furthermore, we suggest that the lower sensitivity to temperature variation in the forest tea soil is a result of the lower soil organic carbon concentrations. The higher SR rates in the terrace tea plantation were partly due to weeding events, which caused CO_2 emission peaks that contributed almost 10% to the annual CO_2 flux. Our findings suggest that moving away from heavily managed tea plantations towards low-input forest tea can reduce the soil CO_2 emissions from these systems. However, our study is a casestudy and further investigations and upscaling are necessary to show if these findings hold true at a landscape level.