Abstract:
Objective The investigation was conducted to examine the impacts of grazing disturbance and enclosure management on the geometric distribution and topological structure of soil aggregates, aimed to furnish a scientific foundation for the restoration, ecological restoration and reconstruction of desert steppe through vegetation.
Method The geometric distribution and topological structure of soil aggregates were obtained by employing undisturbed soil column collection, CT scanning, and image processing quantitative analysis on 6 types of desert steppe samples in Yanchi County, Ningxia.
Result The content of soil aggregates in the Caragana Koragana forest under grazing disturbance was higher than that under enclosure management, and the distribution was more uniform. Additionally, the topological structure of the soil aggregates was better. The content of soil aggregates in enclosed natural grassland was also higher than that in grazing disturbed natural grassland, with a more uniform distribution and better topological structure. The number of soil aggregates in the 0-10 cm soil layer was higher, and their distribution was more uniform. Furthermore, the topological structure of soil aggregates in caragana forest was better than that in the 10-20 cm soil layer and 0-10 cm soil layer.
Conclusion ①Enclosure management was beneficial to improve the uniformity of soil aggregate distribution in natural grassland and optimize the topology of aggregates, while grazing disturbance was beneficial to improve the uniformity of soil aggregate distribution and optimize the topology of aggregates in desert steppe caragana woodland. ②The soil aggregate structure of the caragana woodland was more uniform, and the topology of the aggregate was better than that of the natural grassland, so the soil structure of the caragana forest could be optimized by planting the caragana forest in the desert steppe restoration and reconstruction, and grazing in the desert steppe caragana woodland was conducive to optimizing the soil aggregate structure and improving the soil erosion resistance.