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Pedosphere 20(5): 666–673, 2010

ISSN 1002-0160/CN 32-1315/P
c 2010 Soil Science Society of China
Published by Elsevier Limited and Science Press

Impact of Land Use and Soil Fertility on Distributions of Soil

Aggregate Fractions and Some Nutrients∗1

LIU Xiao-Li1 , HE Yuan-Qiu1,∗2 , H. L. ZHANG2 , J. K. SCHRODER2 , LI Cheng-Liang1 , ZHOU Jing1

and ZHANG Zhi-Yong3
1 Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008 (China)
2 Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 70478-6082 (USA)
3 Institute of Agricultural Resource and Environmental Sciences, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing

210014 (China)
(Received November 12, 2009; revised May 24, 2010)

ABSTRACT
The size distribution of water-stable aggregates and the variability of organic C, N and P contents over aggregate size
fractions were studied for orchard, upland, paddy, and grassland soils with high, medium, and low fertility levels. The
results showed that > 5 mm aggregates in the cultivated upland and paddy soils were 44.0% and 32.0%, respectively,
less than those in the un-tilled orchard soil. Organic C and soil N in different size aggregate fractions in orchard soil
with high fertility were significantly higher than those of other land uses. However, the contents of soil P in different
size aggregates were significantly greater in the paddy soil as compared to the other land uses. Soil organic C, N and P
contents were higher in larger aggregates than those in smaller ones. The amount of water-stable aggregates was positively
correlated to their contribution to soil organic C, N and P. For orchard and grassland soils, the > 5 mm aggregates made
the greatest contribution to soil nutrients, while for upland soil, the 0.25–0.053 mm aggregates contributed the most to soil
nutrients. Therefore, the land use with minimum disturbance was beneficial for the formation of a better soil structure.
The dominant soil aggregates in different land use types determined the distribution of soil nutrients. Utilization efficiency
of soil P could be improved by converting other land uses to the paddy soil.
Key Words: fertility levels, land use types, red soil, water-stable aggregates

Citation: Liu, X. L., He, Y. Q., Zhang, H. L., Schroder, J. K., Li, C. L., Zhou, J. and Zhang, Z. Y. 2010. Impact of land
use and soil fertility on distributions of soil aggregate fractions and some nutrients. Pedosphere. 20(5): 666–673.

Red soils are the most important resources in the tropical and subtropical regions of China. Land
use by humans directly interrupts the natural process of soils, which has important influences on eco-
environment factors, such as soil nutrient status, water runoff, soil erosion potential, and biological
diversity (Fu et al., 1999). Different land use and management methods can induce changes of soil
properties and affect productivity. Choosing an appropriate land use method may improve soil structure
and enhance its resistance to environmental changes. Otherwise, deterioration of soil quality may occur.
During the last half a century, improper land use has led to serious soil degradation.
Soil aggregates are formed as a result of flocculation, cementation, and arrangement of soil particles
and are the important basic units of soil structure (Oades, 1984). The stability of aggregates has sub-
stantial effects on soil fertility, quality and sustainability. Soil quality is not only related to the function
of aggregates with different sizes, but also to the distribution of aggregate sizes. With changes in land
use, soil micro-aggregates may form macro-aggregates through the action of temporary and transient
binding agents (Elliott, 1986). To date, several studies have been performed to investigate the correla-
tion of soil aggregation with soil fertility, and the relationship between the stability of soil aggregates
and the factors affecting their water stability. Linquist et al. (1997) found that upon cultivation the
∗1 Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 30971869).
∗2 Corresponding author. E-mail: yqhe@issas.ac.cn.
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LAND USE AND SOIL NUTRIENTS 667

stability of aggregates and the content of inorganic cementation were gradually reduced which resulted
in large aggregates being broken into small ones. Cultivation decreased soil organic C (SOC) in large
aggregate fractions but increased SOC in small aggregate fractions (Tisdall and Oades, 1982; Elliott,
1986; Castro Filho et al., 2002). This suggests that land use alters the soil organic matter dynamics in
the soil. For example, conversion of forest land into cropland would result in more fine aggregates and
less SOC in large aggregates (Singh and Singh, 1996).
Favorable soil structure for plant growth depends largely on the water-stable aggregates with diame-
ters of 1–10 mm (Yao et al., 1990). Those aggregates are ideal for soil air exchange, water and nutrients
retention and the release of nutrients. C, N and P exist in different soil components with different
stability characteristics (Guggenberger et al., 1995). In the red soil region of China, the content of plant
available N is relatively low and the soil structure is generally poor. Low availability of P has also
become the limiting factor for crop yields. The relationship between the distribution of organic C, N,
and P in different water-stable aggregate size fractions and soil fertility has not been well studied in this
region. A better understanding of the transformation mechanism of organic C, N, and P under different
land use patterns is needed to utilize red soil resources more efficiently. The objectives of our study were
to study the relationship between the water-stable aggregate size distribution and soil fertility under
four different land uses and to study the distribution characteristics of organic C, N and P in different
water-stable aggregate size fractions.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Study site

The study was performed at the Ecological Experiment Station of Red Soil, Chinese Academy of
Sciences near Yingtan, Jiangxi Province of China (116◦ 5 30 E, 28◦ 5 30 N). This station is located
in the typical red soil region of China’s middle subtropical region, where the average annual temperature
and rainfall are 17.8 ◦ C and 1 785 mm, respectively. The upland soil in this region is subject to frequent
cycles of wetting and drying and severe drought in the dry season. The soil was developed from the
Quaternary red clay and was classified as Alumi-Orthic Acrisols according to FAO/UNESCO (1988)
or Udic Kandiusltults according to USDA Soil Taxonomy (Soil Survey Staff, 1998). The major native
plants were Masson pine (Pinus massoniana L.), acacia (Acacia spp.) and semi-arid gramineous grass.
The dominant crops were peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.), grape (Vitis vinifera), rice (Oryza sativa L.)
and orange (Citrus spp.). The land use types investigated were common in the region. The four land use
types selected were orchard land under orange plantation, upland under peanut cultivation, paddy land
under rice cultivation, and uncultivated grassland (as the control) covered with perennial wild grass.
These plots have been under their present land use for at least 3–5 years.

Soil sampling and analysis

Soils samples were collected from each plot at a soil depth of 0–10 cm. Under orchard land, upland
and paddy land uses, soil samples were taken from the plots with 3 soil fertility levels: high (H), medium
(M), and low (L), while the control (grassland) only had one fertility level. Soil fertility levels were based
on the crop yields supplied by local farmers for upland and paddy soils and on the number of years since
the orchard was established. The area of each plot was at least 250 m2 . Before sampling, the vegetation
was cleared to expose the soil surface. Three sub-samples were taken from each fertility level plot and
mixed in a plastic box to form a composite sample. All the samples were returned to the lab shortly
after collection for chemical characterization (Table I).
After removal of gravels and plant residues, approximately 60 g of a representative air-dried soil
sample was wet-sieved by hand through a set of sieves in the manner described below to obtain 6 diffe-
rent water-stable aggregate fractions: > 5, 5.0–2.0, 2.0–1.0, 1.0–0.5, 0.5–0.25, and 0.25–0.053 mm. Five
replications of soil samples (60 g) with one fertility level in each land use plot were prepared to pass the
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668 X. L. LIU et al.

TABLE I

Selected chemical properties of the soils collected from Yingtan of Jiangxi Province, China

Land use Fertility level Total organic carbon Total nitrogen Total phosphorus Carbon/nitrogen
g kg−1
Orchard High 43.6±0.02a) 2.53±0.10 0.45±0.04 17.2
Medium 12.0±0.17 0.71±0.07 0.31±0.12 16.9
Low 8.0±0.09 0.44±0.01 0.33±0.08 18.3
Upland High 13.1±0.81 1.08±0.09 0.61±0.10 12.1
Medium 8.6±0.14 0.86±0.01 0.49±0.01 9.9
Low 7.4±0.15 0.82±0.01 0.58±0.01 9.0
Paddy High 21.6±0.11 2.01±0.02 0.82±0.09 10.9
Medium 20.2±0.03 1.69±0.01 0.76±0.07 11.9
Low 12.9±0.22 1.11±0.01 0.72±0.10 11.7
Grassland - 8.8±0.32 0.91±0.04 0.36±0.01 9.7
a) Means ± standard deviations.

sieve. The method used for water-stable aggregates separation was adopted from Elliott (1986). Briefly,
the soil sample was placed in a 5 mm sieve and submersed in water for 10 min before sieving. The
soil was sieved under water in a shallow pan by gently moving the sieve up 50 times over a distance
of approximately 3 cm during a period of 2 min. The material remaining on the sieve was transferred
to an aluminum container and dried at 50 ◦ C in a forced-air oven and weighed. The percentage for
each aggregate fraction was calculated on a dry weight basis. The soil passing the sieve and remaining
in the shallow pan was then transferred to the next finer sieve and the above process was repeated for
the remaining size fractions. During the sieving process, floatable material was removed and discarded
(Six et al., 2000). The five replicates from each fertility level plot of different land uses were collected
together and fractionated for chemical analyses.
The samples of water-stable aggregates from each size fraction and the initial soil samples were
ground by mortar and pestle to pass a 0.15 mm sieve prior to chemical analysis. Total organic C, N and
P were measured by the methods of Lu (1999). Soil organic C was determined by the Walkley-Black
method, soil total N by the semimicro-Kjeldahl procedure, and soil total P by the molybdate blue
method after digestion with HClO4 and H2 SO4 .

Statistical analyses

For statistical analysis, SPSS statistical software (Chicago, USA) was used. Significant differences
between means of land uses and soil fertility levels were examined using one-way analysis of variance
(ANOVA) and the least significant differences range test. The bivariate method was adopted in data
correlation analysis.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Size distribution of water-stable aggregates

The size distribution of water-stable aggregates under different land uses and fertility levels is shown
in Fig. 1. The > 5 mm aggregates were the dominant fraction at all three fertility levels for the orchard
and grassland soils. In contrast, the 0.25–0.053 mm aggregates were the major fraction at all three fertil-
ity levels for the upland soil. For the paddy soil, the dominant fractions were 1–0.5, 5–2 and 0.25–0.053
mm aggregates in the high, medium and low fertility sites, respectively. For the orchard soil, the percent-
age of > 5 mm aggregates decreased with decreasing level of soil fertility. Conversely, the percentage of
0.25–0.053 mm aggregates increased with decreasing level of soil fertility for the upland soil. Compared to
the uncultivated grassland soil, the average percentage of > 5 mm aggregates decreased by 39.3%–27.4%
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LAND USE AND SOIL NUTRIENTS 669

Fig. 1 Size distribution of water-stable aggregates in soils of different land uses with (a) high, (b) medium, and (c)
low fertility levels. Bars with the same uppercase letter(s) within a given land use are not significantly different among
different size fractions at P < 0.05. Bars with the same lowercase letter(s) within a given size fraction are not significantly
different among different land uses at P < 0.05.

in the upland and paddy soils, but increased by 4.6% in the orchard soil.
The trends of size distribution were expected and consistent with previous observations. Gupta
and Germida (1988) reported a greater proportion of macro-aggregates in a natural system than in a
cultivated system. Powers (1992) reported that > 5 mm aggregates were destroyed by tillage. In the
cultivated upland and paddy soils, the macro-aggregates disintegrated into micro-aggregates probably
due to rapid mineralization of soil organic matter accelerated by tillage. During the rapid mineraliza-
tion, SOC and soil fertility decreased, which affected the distribution and stabilization of water-stable
aggregates (Six et al., 1999, 2000). The decrease of SOC due to land use changes has been explained
by an observed loss of C-enriched macro-aggregates accompanied by an increase of C-depleted micro-
aggregates (Elliott, 1986; Six et al., 2000). Frequent cultivation accelerated the decomposition of organic
cementation material present in water-stable aggregates and induced the decrease in large aggregate size.
Under the orchard land use, however, soil was covered with flourishing vegetation and not tilled, which
added organic matter to the soil and reduced the turnover period of SOC. Increasing C inputs to orchard
soil could stimulate aggregation because of an increase in the production of microbial polysaccharides
and other compounds that stabilize aggregates (Angers and Mehuys, 1989; Roberson et al., 1991; Grandy
and Robertson, 2007). For the paddy soil, the destruction of aggregates by plowing in water generally
reduced the number of large aggregates (Six et al., 1998). However, new stable soil structure could also
be formed during the alteration of drying and wetting (Wang and Wang, 2005). Thus the quantity of
> 5 mm aggregates for paddy soil was actually higher than that for upland soil.

Soil organic C, N and P contents of water-stable aggregate size fractions

The storage of SOC of the high fertility orchard soil was significantly higher than that of upland,
paddy and grassland soils regardless of water-stable aggregate sizes (Table II). For high fertility orchard
soil, organic C was abundant, which mostly came from animal and plant residues and flourished roots
of vegetation.
Organic C of paddy soil at the medium and low fertility levels was higher than that of other land
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670 X. L. LIU et al.

TABLE II
Soil organic carbon, total nitrogen and total phosphorous contents of water-stable aggregate size fractions for orchard (O),
upland (U), paddy (P), and grassland (G) soils with high, medium and low fertility levels
Aggregate High fertility Medium fertility Low fertility
size
O U P G O U P G O U P G
mm g kg−1
Soil organic carbon
>5 37.1aBCa) 0.0dF 22.7bB 9.1cD 13.7bC 0.0dE 22.6aA 9.1cD 7.4cD 0.0dE 13.8aB 9.1bD
5–2 37.4aBC 15.2bA 35.6aA 10.3bB 14.2bC 12.3cA 22.0aB 10.3dB 7.7cC 10.3bA 14.3aA 10.3bB
2–1 40.4aB 10.7cB 25.3bAB 11.5cA 17.0bA 8.6dB 21.3aC 11.5cA 7.9dB 10.3cA 14.1aA 11.5bA
1–0.5 52.3aA 9.2cC 24.0bAB 10.0cC 15.5bB 7.5dC 20.6aD 10.0cC 8.2dA 9.0cB 13.4aC 10.0bC
0.5–0.25 40.3aB 8.7cD 20.1bB 8.6cE 13.9bC 7.5dC 16.5aE 8.6cE 8.0cAB 7.7dC 11.0aD 8.6bE
0.25–0.053 32.4aC 8.1cE 15.7bB 8.2cF 10.3bD 6.9dD 16.2aE 8.2cF 6.7dE 7.2cD 9.1aE 8.2bF
Total nitrogen
>5 2.31aD 0.00dE 2.01bB 0.67cC 0.93bB 0.00dE 2.04aA 0.67cC 0.50bC 0.00dE 1.12aA 0.67cC
5–2 2.29aD 1.15cA 2.15bA 0.79dB 0.61bF 0.90cA 1.97aB 0.79dB 0.35cB 0.82bA 1.10aB 0.80bB
2–1 2.50aB 0.76dB 2.17bA 0.83cA 0.64dE 0.67cB 1.97aB 0.83bA 0.48dA 0.73cB 1.09aB 0.84bA
1–0.5 2.58aA 0.69cC 1.99bB 0.32dE 0.95bA 0.61cC 1.84aC 0.32dE 0.65bA 0.72cB 1.11aA 0.32dE
0.5–0.25 2.41aC 0.70cC 1.75bC 0.32dE 0.87bC 0.56cD 1.51aD 0.32dE 0.64bA 0.63cC 0.95aC 0.32dE
0.25–0.053 2.10aE 0.58cD 1.43bD 0.59cD 0.74bD 0.60cC 1.43aE 0.59cD 0.55bC 0.52cD 0.58aD 0.59aD
Total phosphorous
>5 0.36bA 0.00dD 0.74aB 0.18cA 0.20bA 0.00cD 0.66aA 0.18bA 0.18bB 0.00cC 0.64aA 0.18bA
5–2 0.42cA 0.54bA 0.79aA 0.18dA 0.19cA 0.48bA 0.63aAB 0.18cA 0.20cAB 0.53bAB 0.63aA 0.18cA
2–1 0.41bA 0.41bC 0.78aA 0.19cA 0.18cA 0.43bB 0.63aAB 0.19cA 0.21cA 0.49bB 0.59aA 0.19cA
1–0.5 0.43cA 0.45bB 0.77aAB 0.10dA 0.19cA 0.39bC 0.59aBC 0.18cA 0.21cA 0.54bA 0.64aA 0.18cA
0.5–0.25 0.40bA 0.44bBC 0.73aB 0.20cA 0.18cA 0.44bB 0.54aC 0.20cA 0.21cA 0.54bA 0.58aA 0.20cA
0.25–0.053 0.36cA 0.43bBC 0.58aC 0.18dA 0.14dB 0.43bB 0.47aD 0.18cA 0.19bB 0.51aA 0.47aB 0.18bA
a) Means with the same lowercase letter(s) within each row at a given fertility level are not significantly different at P < 0.05

among different land uses. Means with the same uppercase letter(s) within each column are not significantly different at
P < 0.05 among different aggregate size classes within a given soil fertility level and land use.

uses. For orchard and paddy soils, the SOC in different aggregate fractions decreased as soil fertility
decreased. For upland soil, SOC among aggregates with medium fertility was lower than that with high
fertility (Table II). For high and low fertility levels of orchard soil, SOC in aggregates of 1–0.5 mm was
higher than that of other fractions; however, within the medium fertility level, the highest SOC occurred
in the 2–1 mm aggregates. For upland soil, SOC of 5–2 mm aggregates was significantly higher than
that of other fractions and decreased with aggregate size. Studies have shown that soil organic matter
was a major binding agent responsible for the formation of aggregates and played an indirect role in the
macro-aggregation process by controlling microbial population levels in the soil. Polysaccharides derived
from microbial activity acted as transient cementing agents between micro-aggregates and hence were
important factors in macro-aggregation (Tisdall and Oades, 1982; Conant et al., 2004). The formation
of large aggregates from smaller aggregates partly depends on soil organic cementation. However, the
stability of SOC in the small size aggregates was better than the large ones. From orchard to upland
soil, the declines of SOC among aggregates were the largest for the largest size class (> 5 mm) and
smallest for the smallest one (0.25–0.053 mm) because the smaller aggregates provide a greater degree
of physical protection of SOC than macro-aggregates (Conant et al., 2004).
The N content of the high fertility orchard soil was significantly higher than those of upland, paddy
and grassland soils regardless of water-stable aggregate sizes. But for medium and low fertility soils, N
content of different size water-stable aggregates in the paddy soil was greater than that of other land
uses. For the orchard and paddy soils, as soil fertility decreased from high to low, soil N in different size
aggregates also decreased. This trend was not obvious for the other 2 land uses (Table II). Levels of soil
N in aggregates of 1–0.5 and 5–2 mm were the greatest in orchard and upland soils, respectively. In the
orchard soil with low fertility, soil N of 1–0.5 mm aggregates was not significantly different from other
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LAND USE AND SOIL NUTRIENTS 671

size aggregates. For the upland soil, soil N decreased with the decreasing size of aggregates. Soil N for
the grassland soil was highest in the 2–1 mm aggregates. These distribution patterns of soil N were
consistent with soil C. When SOC in aggregates changed, the soil N storage changed correspondingly.
Salnju et al. (2003) reported the retention of SOC depended on soil total N while Gao et al. (2000)
showed the trend of SOC fluctuation corresponded with soil N.
The distribution of soil P in water-stable aggregates was different from SOC and soil N. Among
different land uses, soil P in aggregates for paddy soil was significantly higher than those of other land
uses probably due to total P being greater in the paddy soil. For the paddy soil, the good aggregate
structure had better capacity for storing soil P. Xia et al. (2002) found that plant available P increased
during the alternating process of wetting and drying of paddy soil. During the conversion from orchard
land to cultivated soil, soil organic C and N in aggregates decreased but soil total P increased because
of applications of P fertilizer to cultivated soil over the years. In comparison with other land uses, soil
P in the upland soil was significantly less than that in the paddy soil but was greater than those in the
orchard and grassland soils. At the medium fertility level, soil N of aggregates for orchard and upland
soils were significantly lower than that at the high fertility, but were not obviously different from that at
the low fertility. For the high fertility level of orchard soil, soil P was not significantly different among
different size aggregates (Table II). For paddy soil, total P was higher in macro-aggregates which was
consistent with the results reported by Elliott (1986) and Gupta and Germida (1988). For high and
medium fertility levels of the upland soil, soil P in the 5–2 mm aggregates was significantly higher than
that in other size aggregates. For the paddy soil, the lowest soil P was in the aggregates of 0.25–0.053
mm, which was significantly different (P < 0.05) from other size aggregates.

Correlation between water-stable aggregates and soil organic C, N and P

The aggregate quantities of > 5, 5–2, 0.5–0.25 and 0.25–0.053 mm fractions were significantly corre-
lated with SOC (Table III). Several studies have shown that SOC was the major cementation material
and had an important effect on the stability and composition of water-stable aggregates (Tisdall and
Oades, 1982; Chaney and Swift, 1984; Elliott, 1986). Adding organic materials and renewing organic
matter were the critical methods to keep or improve water stability of soil structure.

TABLE III

Correlation coefficients between water-stable aggregates and soil organic carbon, total nitrogen and total phosphorus

Aggregate size Soil organic carbon Total nitrogen Total phosphorus

mm
>5 0.449* 0.190 0.598**
5–2 0.387* 0.354 0.099
2–1 0.225 0.363* 0.484**
1–0.5 −0.104 0.174 0.753**
0.5–0.25 −0.449* −0.308 0.271
0.25–0.053 −0.551** −0.433* 0.201

*, **Significant at P < 0.05 and P < 0.01 levels, respectively.

Significant correlation (P < 0.01) existed between the percentage of water-stable aggregates and the
total P in the > 5, 2–1 and 1–0.5 mm aggregate fractions (Table III). Our results are different from
the previous report (Singh and Singh, 1996), who found that soil P was not important in influencing
aggregation as the total P content and the proportion of macro-aggregates were independent of each
other. The difference in the two studies is probably due to P being easily fixed in red soil in China,
where P is typically limiting nutrient. Our results indicated the distribution of soil aggregate fractions
and the total P content were not independent for the red soil. The aggregates of 2–1 and 0.25–0.053
mm fractions were correlated with soil N concentration. With the decreasing soil aggregate size, the
correlation gradually changed from positive to negative relationships. The large aggregates increased
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672 X. L. LIU et al.

and the small ones decreased with the increasing soil N, which was similar with the relationship between
SOC and soil aggregates.
Different size aggregate fractions contributed to soil organic C, N, and P differently (Table IV). For
the orchard and upland soils, the aggregates of > 5 mm fraction made the highest contribution to soil
organic C and N while the 0.25–0.053 mm fraction had the highest contribution to P. Within the paddy
soil, the aggregates of 1–0.5 and 5–2 mm contributed more to soil N while aggregates of 1–0.5, 5–2
and 0.25–0.053 mm contributed more to soil P. For grassland soil, > 5 mm aggregates had the highest
contribution to soil organic C, N, and P.

TABLE IV

Relative contributiona) of different size fractions of water-stable aggregates to soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, and
total phosphorous for orchard, upland, paddy, and grassland soils with high (H), medium (M), and low (L) fertility levels

Aggregate Orchard Upland Paddy Grassland

size
H M L H M L H M L
mm %
Soil organic carbon
>5 45.7a) 53.9 28.9 0.0 0.0 0.0 6.9 19.7 12.5 40.6
5–2 18.6 24.2 19.3 7.2 4.7 8.9 27.5 38.7 21.4 22.5
2–1 3.4 5.1 4.4 3.6 2.4 3.9 6.5 5.7 4.7 5.3
1–0.5 8.2 8.7 11.4 14.8 12.2 15.5 27.5 14.7 17.4 9.2
0.5–0.25 2.6 4.7 5.9 9.9 16.4 14.0 8.5 3.9 9.2 4.4
0.25–0.053 4.5 15.4 9.7 25.1 37.8 49.1 18.8 10.2 19.0 15.9
Total nitrogen
>5 49.1 61.3 40.4 0.0 0.0 0.0 6.6 21.4 11.8 29.1
5–2 19.6 10.3 27.7 6.6 3.4 6.4 17.9 41.4 19.2 16.8
2–1 3.6 2.5 6.5 3.1 1.9 2.5 6.0 6.3 4.2 3.7
1–0.5 7.0 9.0 16.6 13.5 9.9 11.2 24.4 15.6 16.9 2.9
0.5–0.25 2.7 4.9 8.6 9.6 12.3 10.4 8.0 4.2 9.2 1.6
0.25–0.053 5.0 18.7 14.7 21.8 32.6 32.0 18.3 10.7 14.2 11.0
Total phosphorous
>5 43.4 30.2 19.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 5.9 15.4 10.3 19.3
5–2 20.4 12.7 12.0 5.5 3.2 5.8 16.1 29.7 17.1 9.4
2–1 3.3 2.1 2.8 3.0 2.1 2.4 5.3 4.5 3.5 2.1
1–0.5 6.5 4.1 7.2 15.5 11.2 11.8 23.0 11.1 14.9 4.0
0.5–0.25 2.5 2.3 3.8 10.7 16.7 12.6 8.2 3.4 8.8 2.5
0.25–0.053 4.8 8.4 6.6 28.6 41.0 44.6 18.3 7.8 17.6 8.7
a) Contribution of water-stable aggregates to soil nutrient = nutrient concentrations in aggregates × soil aggregate con-
tents/total soil nutrient contents × 100%.

However, the aggregates enriched with soil nutrients often did not make the most contribution to soil
fertility, probably due to the relative small quantity of those fractions. This result was also consistent
with the contribution of soil organic C and N in brown soil in China (Sun et al., 2005).

CONCLUSIONS

The > 5 mm aggregates in the cultivated upland and paddy soil were 44.0% and 32.0% less, respec-
tively, than those in the un-tilled orchard soil. This indicated that large aggregates had been destroyed
by tillage and changed into smaller aggregates. Therefore, the land use with minimum disturbance is
beneficial for the formation of a better soil structure. Organic C and soil N in different size aggregate
fractions for orchard soil with high fertility were significantly higher than those of other land uses.
However, the contents of soil P in different size aggregates were significantly greater in the paddy soil
as compared to other land uses. This indicated that rice culture with a good aggregate structure had a
better capacity to store soil P and enhance soil fertility effectively in the area. Thus, we could improve
the utilization efficiency of soil P by converting other uses to paddy soil.
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LAND USE AND SOIL NUTRIENTS 673

Soil organic C, N and P were higher in the larger aggregates than in the smaller ones. The amount
of water-stable aggregates was positively related to their contribution to soil organic C, N and P. For
orchard and grassland soils, the > 5 mm aggregates made the greatest contribution to soil nutrients.
Conversely for upland soil, the 0.25–0.053 mm aggregates contributed the most to nutrients. The
dominant soil aggregates in different land use types determined the distribution of soil nutrients.

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