Responses of microbial attributes to land degradation in sandy cropland, Northern China

       第十一届国际旱地发展会议——To evaluate the responses of microbial attributes to land degradation in sandy cropland, we examined soil microbial attributes including microbial biomass and microbiological activities in a typical agro-pastoral transitional zone in Naiman County of northern China. Degraded croplands (lightly degraded cropland (LDC), moderately degraded cropland (MDC) and heavily degraded cropland (HDC) were chosen according to the magnitude of sand invasion. Our results demonstrate that both microbial biomass and microbiological activities (quantified as microbial abundance and enzyme activities) decreased significantly from LDC to MDC and HDC. In addition, correlations between soil microbial biomass carbon and microbiological activities were significantly positive. Further analysis of this relationship between soil microbial biomass carbon and microbiological activities identified three key microbiological factors influencing the level of soil microbial biomass carbon.