Diversity and Abundance of Soil Animals as Influenced by Long-Term Fertilization in Grey Desert Soil, China

Maibo Jiang, Xihe Wang, Yunhao Liusui, Xueqing Sun, Chengyi Zhao and Hua Liu
Additional contact information
Maibo Jiang: Institute of Soil Fertilizer and Agricultural Water Saving, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Urumqi 830091, China
Xihe Wang: Institute of Soil Fertilizer and Agricultural Water Saving, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Urumqi 830091, China
Yunhao Liusui: Institute of Forestry, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Urumqi 830052, China
Xueqing Sun: Institute of Soil Fertilizer and Agricultural Water Saving, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Urumqi 830091, China
Chengyi Zhao: State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Urumqi 830011, China
Hua Liu: Institute of Soil Fertilizer and Agricultural Water Saving, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Urumqi 830091, China

Sustainability, 2015, vol. 7, issue 8, 1-17

Abstract: The relationship between soil fauna and different fertilizer management practices is of growing concern. The aim of this research was to investigate the response of soil fauna to fertilization regimes, to explore the relationships among the community of soil animals, soil moisture and crop yields. The application of organic fertilizers ( i.e ., sheep manure or crop residues) increased crop yields and promoted the number of individuals and species of soil fauna owing to the exogenous organic matter that fertilizers provided for the survival and development of soil fauna. Furthermore, the treatments that applied sheep manure ( i.e. , sheep manure only or nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sheep manure plus) were significantly beneficial for increasing crop yields and diversity of soil fauna compared to treatments with crop residues returned ( i.e. , crop residues returned only or nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and crop residues returned to the field) ( p < 0.05) due to the response of soil fauna to diverse exogenous nutrients and the effect of soil fertility. Therefore, the finding that soil fauna abundance is significantly positively correlated with soil moisture and crop yield may mean the effects of fertilizer applications on soil animals were partly masked by the soil moisture and crop yield.

Keywords: long-term fertilization; soil fauna; crop yield; grey desert soil (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/8/10837/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/8/10837/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:7:y:2015:i:8:p:10837-10853:d:53880

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().