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Acidification and salinization of soils with different initial pH under greenhouse vegetable cultivation

  • SOILS, SEC 2 • GLOBAL CHANGE, ENVIRON RISK ASSESS, SUSTAINABLE LAND USE • RESEARCH ARTICLE
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Abstract

Purpose

Field survey and sampling of vegetable greenhouse soils were conducted in Shouguang, Shandong Province, and Ningbo, Zhejiang Province to study the acidification and salinization characteristics of soils with different initial soil pH values and greenhouse cultivation time.

Materials and methods

The pH, electrical conductivity (EC), and ion composition of 74 composite soil samples were analyzed to evaluate their relation to soil acidification and salinization.

Results and discussion

Compared with their corresponding open-field soils, acidification and salinization of the greenhouse soils occurred in both 0-20 cm and 20-40 cm soil layers for the Shouguang and Ningbo soils. The soil pH decreased gradually at different rates as greenhouse cultivation time increased in the two surveyed regions, but the opposite trend was observed for soil EC. For the Shouguang soils, while the percentages of K+ and NO3 − increased dramatically and Ca2+ and HCO3 - decreased significantly after the soils were converted to greenhouse use, the correlation between soil pH and EC was significant, and the stepwise multiple regression analysis further showed that there was a significant correlation between pH and the percent of Ca2+ and HCO3 −.

Conclusions

Soil acidification and salinization are common in greenhouse soils with different initial soil pH. Soil acidification in the Shouguang soils is a result of decrease in the percent of Ca2+, HCO3 − due to over application of N and K fertilizers. Future research should be devoted to understanding the relevant mechanisms in greenhouse soils with lower initial soil pH values to assess if there are correlations between soil acidification and salinization under greenhouse cultivation.

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Acknowledgments

This work was jointly supported by National High-tech R&D Program of China (863 Program) (2012AA062603), the National Basic Research Program of China (2011CB100502), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the China Central Universities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Subtropical Soil and Plant Nutrition, College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, People’s Republic of China

    Jiangpei Han, Yihua Luo, Liping Yang, Xingmei Liu, Laosheng Wu & Jianming Xu

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  1. Jiangpei Han
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  2. Yihua Luo
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  3. Liping Yang
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  4. Xingmei Liu
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  5. Laosheng Wu
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  6. Jianming Xu
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Correspondence to Laosheng Wu or Jianming Xu.

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Responsible editor: Jadwiga Gzyl

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Han, J., Luo, Y., Yang, L. et al. Acidification and salinization of soils with different initial pH under greenhouse vegetable cultivation. J Soils Sediments 14, 1683–1692 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-014-0922-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-014-0922-4

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