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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Terrestrial Microbiology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1471329
This article is part of the Research Topic Mechanisms of Soil Microorganisms in Sustainable Grazing and Ecosystem Multifunctionality Enhancement in Arid Regions View all articles

Effects of cropland-to-orchard conversion on soil multifunctionality, particularly nitrogen cycling in the eastern Loess Plateau

Provisionally accepted
Zhuanzhuan Fan Zhuanzhuan Fan 1Jiali Wang Jiali Wang 2Dandan Lv Dandan Lv 2Shangbin Li Shangbin Li 2Yuan Miao Yuan Miao 2Mengjun Hu Mengjun Hu 2Fengying Liu Fengying Liu 2Dong Wang Dong Wang 2*
  • 1 School of Life Sciences, Henan University, Kaifeng, China
  • 2 Henan University, Kaifeng, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The conversion of cropland to orchards is one of the main measures of the Grain for Green Program for soil and water conservation and ecosystem function maintenance in the eastern Loess Plateau, China. However, the patterns and influencing forces of soil multifunctionality during the conversion from cropland to orchard remain unclear. This study evaluated the responses and regulating factors of soil multifunctionality following the conversion of cropland to pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) orchard along a 10-year chronosequence. Results showed that the conversion of cropland to pomegranate trees significantly increased the L-leucine aminopeptidase enzyme activity from 4.77 to 17.69 nmol g -1 h -1 . The 10-year pomegranate stand exhibited the highest nitrogen (N) cycle multifunctionality. The N cycle multifunctionality was positively correlated with soil dissolved organic carbon (C) content, soil available phosphorus content, microbial biomass C content, phospholipid fatty acid, and soil feature index (All p < 0.05). Structural equation modeling suggested that the increased N cycle multifunctionality was attributed to soil feature index rather than soil microbial C content and phospholipid fatty acid.Land-use change did not affect soil C cycle, phosphorus cycle, or soil multifunctionality. Overall, our findings reveal that cropland conversion to orchards significantly enhances soil N cycle multifunctionality, highlighting the soil feature index's role in maintaining soil function. The conversion from cropland to orchards, which has economic benefits and increases soil N cycle multifunctionality, is an effective approach of the Grain for Green Program in the Loess Plateau.

    Keywords: enzyme activity, pomegranate trees, Soil multifunctionality, land use change, The Loess Plateau

    Received: 27 Jul 2024; Accepted: 26 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Fan, Wang, Lv, Li, Miao, Hu, Liu and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Dong Wang, Henan University, Kaifeng, China

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