Seasonal Dynamics of Soil Enzymatic Activity under Different Land-Use Types in Rocky Mountainous Region of North China

Abstract

To reveal the effects of different land-use types on soil enzyme activities, soil samples were collected from 0–10, 10–20 and 20–30 cm soil layers to compare and analyze soil β-glucosidase (BG), urease (URE), protease (PROT) and catalase (CAT) activities in farmland (FL), abandoned land (AL) and three plantation forests: Platycladus orientalis (L.) Franco (PO), Robinia pseudoacacia L. (RP) and Quercus variabilis Bl. (QV) in the rocky mountainous region of North China. The results showed that the soil enzyme activities varied significantly under different land-use types, and the interannual mean values of FL and PO were remarkably higher than those of other land uses in the 0–30 cm soil layer, in which the soil BG and URE activities of FL were 22% and 12% higher than those of AL, and 428% and 179% higher than those of QV, respectively; the soil PROT and CAT activities of PO were 66% and 23% higher than those of AL, and 479% and 113% higher than those of QV, respectively. Soil BG, URE and PROT activities were all higher in June and lower in December, while soil CAT activity was slightly lower in June. The soil enzymatic activities all showed a notable decrease with the depth of the soil layer. Soil BG, URE, PROT and CAT activities were remarkably (p < 0.01) or significantly (p < 0.05) positively correlated with available nitrogen, available phosphorus, available potassium, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), NO3−-N, soil organic carbon, water content, clay and silt volume fraction, and significantly negatively correlated with sand volume fraction. Soil DOC and pH were important factors influencing soil enzymatic activity, implying that changes in soil enzymatic activity under different land-use types may be the result of a combination of temperature, moisture and plant type. In conclusion, PO plantations are conducive to improving the physicochemical and biological properties of soil and enhance soil fertility, which is a reasonable land-use method to achieve sustainable development in the rocky mountainous region of North China.