Soil characteristics of different desertification grasslands in Yanchi County

To study effects of grassland desertification on soil characteristics, physical and chemical properties of soils and soil enzyme activities of 5 different desertification grasslands in Yanchi County, including potential desertification grassland, mild desertification grassland, moderate desertification grassland, severe desertification grassland and extremely severe desertification grassland, were analyzed in this study. Results showed that soil nutrients and enzyme activities responded differently to the aggravating of grassland desertification, but their responses trended decrease overall. Soil moisture, total N, available N, total P, available P and available K contents decreased with the aggravating of grassland desertification. There are significant differences among the same index of different desertification grasslands(P0.05). The soil organic carbon and total P contents are potential desertification grasslandmoderate desertification grasslandmild desertification grasslandextremely severe desertification grasslandsevere desertification grassland(P0.05). Soil invertase activity declined gradually with the aggravating of grassland desertification(P0.05). And there is no significant difference among catalase activities of different desertification grasslands(P0.05). Results of soil physical and chemical correlation analysis indicated that, soil invertase activity has significant positive correlation with organic carbon content(P0.05), and extremely significant positive correlation with other nutrients contents(P0.01). Catalase activity has extremely significant positive correlation with soil total P, total N, available N contents((P0.01), significant positive correlation with soil total K, available K and available P contents(P0.05), but no significant correlation with soil organic carbonate content(P0.05).