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Characteristics of soil aggregate structure and organic carbon and nitrogen distribution in orchards of different planting age in subtropical areas
Received:September 19, 2018  
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KeyWord:tillage;soil aggregate;organic carbon;total nitrogen;C/N
Author NameAffiliationE-mail
LIN Cheng Institute of Soil and Fertilizer, Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Fuzhou 350013, China  
ZHENG Xiang-zhou Institute of Soil and Fertilizer, Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Fuzhou 350013, China  
GUO Bao-ling Institute of Soil and Fertilizer, Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Fuzhou 350013, China  
DING Hong Institute of Soil and Fertilizer, Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Fuzhou 350013, China  
XIE Yu Institute of Agro-Environment and Soil, Hainan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Haikou 571100, China  
ZHANG Yu-shu Institute of Soil and Fertilizer, Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Fuzhou 350013, China zys3505@126.com 
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Abstract:
      To investigate the relationship between planting age and soil aggregate structure as well as the distribution characteristics of organic carbon and nitrogen, soils from a woodland(0 a)and orchards of different planting age(2, 10, 20, 30 a)were collected and analyzed in this study. The results showed that the content of soil aggregates with size >2 mm increased after conversion from woodland to orchard. In orchard lands, the soil aggregate content decreased with its size and was dominated by the particle size classes of >2 mm and 0.25~2 mm, which were 40.1%~64.9% and 30.6%~46.4% of all size classes, respectively. However, there were no significant differences in soil aggregate structure among the different planting ages. The soil organic carbon and total nitrogen contents increased within each aggregate size class with planting age, whereas the C/N ratio decreased. The increased soil organic carbon and total nitrogen contents were mainly distributed in the soil aggregates with sizes of 0.25~2 mm. These results indicated that soil macroaggregate content(>2 mm)increased after conversion from woodland to orchard, whereas there were no significant differences among soils from orchards of different planting age. The contents of organic carbon and total nitrogen improved with planting age. However, the C/N ratio decreased and should be adjusted in orchards via reduced nitrogen fertilizer application and increased organic fertilizer application.