Pedosphere 20(6): 799--806, 2010
ISSN 1002-0160/CN 32-1315/P
©2010 Soil Science Society of China
Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science Press
Soil acidification of Alfisols as influenced by tea cultivation in eastern China
WANG Hui1,2,3, XU Ren-Kou2, WANG Ning2, LI Xing-Hui1
1 Institute of Tea Science, Nanjing Agriculture University, Nanjing 210095 (China)
2 State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008 (China)
3 College of Food and Bioengineering, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang 471003 (China)
ABSTRACT
      Soil acidification is an important process in land degradation around the world as well as in China.Acidification of Alfisols was investigated in the tea gardens with various years of tea cultivation in the eastern China.Cultivation of tea plants caused soil acidification and soil acidity increased with the increase of tea cultivation period.Soil pH of composite samples from cultivated layers decreased by 1.37,1.62 and 1.85,respectively,after 13,34 and 54 years of tea plantation,as compared to the surface soil obtained from the unused land.Soil acidification rates at early stages of tea cultivation were found to be higher than those at the later stages.The acidification rate for the period of 0-13 years was as high as 4.40 kmol H+ ha-1 year-1 for the cultivated layer samples.Soil acidification induced the decrease of soil exchangeable base cations and base cation saturation and thus increased the soil exchangeable acidity.Soil acidification also caused the decrease of soil cation exchange capacity,especially for the 54-year-old tea garden.Soil acidification induced by tea plantation also led to the increase of soil exchangeable Al and soluble Al,which was responsible for the Al toxicity to plants.
Key Words:  aluminum, base cations, cation exchange capacity, soil exchangeable acidity, tea garden
Citation: Wang, H., Xu, R. K., Wang, N. and Li, X. H. 2010. Soil acidification of Alfisols as influenced by tea cultivation in eastern China. Pedosphere. 20(6): 799-806.
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