Soil Organic Carbon and Total Nitrogen Stocks and Interactions with Soil Metal Oxides in Different Climatic Zones

Abstract

Studying both soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) storages in different climate zones and their relationship with climatic factors is of great significance for understanding soil fertility and predicting global climate change. Climate influences soil minerals, which are important for soil organic carbon (SOC) and N retention. However, there are few studies on SOC and soil total nitrogen (STN) storage in different climatic zones, and of the effects of soil oxidation minerals on SOC and STN storage. We measured the storage of SOC and STN and the content of oxidizable minerals in soils from different climatic regions, then obtained climate data from the China Meteorological Data Service Center, and finally investigated the effects of climate factors and soil oxides minerals on SOC and STN. The results showed that climatic factors (mean annual temperature—MAT, mean annual precipitation—MAP, and ≥10 °C mean annual cumulative temperature—MACT) had significant effects on SOC and STN content, and there was significant epistatic clustering of SOC and STN contents in different climatic zones. When MAT, MAP, and MACT increased, SOC and STN storage showed a trend of increasing and then decreasing, and both SOC and STN storages were largest in the middle temperate zone. The content of soil metal oxides (Al2O3, Fe2O3, Na2O, MgO, CaO, K2O, and TiO2) showed significant positive correlation with climatic factors (MAT, MAP, and MACT). The contents of Al2O3, Fe2O3, CaO, K2O, and TiO2 showed significant negative correlation with SOC and STN contents. In summary, our results showed that, although soil metal oxides (SMO) have a protective effect on SOC and STN to some extent, they do not change the influence of climatic factors on SOC and STN storage.