Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Stocks and Their Relationship with Plant and Soil Dynamics of Degraded and Artificial Restoration Grasslands in an Alpine Region

Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Stocks and Their Relationship with Plant and Soil Dynamics of Degraded and Artificial Restoration Grasslands in an Alpine Region

Land disturbances and management approaches can significantly alter grassland soils. Therefore, understanding the carbon and nitrogen storage accompanying plant and soil physical and chemical properties due to anthropogenic disturbance and different management strategies is important. In our study, we investigated carbon and nitrogen storage in artificial grasslands with different durations of restoration and native grasslands with different levels of degradation. We found that total carbon and nitrogen were significantly higher five years after restoration than after seven and nine years, but decreased due to grassland degradation. Furthermore, soil carbon and nitrogen had a close relationship with plant and soil factors, as reflected by a correlation index. The above-mentioned results indicate that artificial grasslands can be used as an effective method to restore “black-beach” soil grassland. In the long term, however, human intervention should be implemented to prevent the degradation of artificial grasslands.