[Changes of soil nutrient contents after prescribed burning of forestland in Heshan City, Guangdong Province].

A comparative study was conducted to analyze the changes of soil nutrient contents in Eucalyptus forestland and in shrubland after three years of prescribed burning. In Eucalyptus forestland, soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, available potassium contents and soil pH decreased significantly; soil available phosphorus and exchangeable magnesium contents, net nitrogen mineralization rate and ammonification rate also decreased but showed no significant difference. In shrubland, soil exchangeable calcium content increased significantly, but the contents of other nutrients had no significant change. The main reason of the lower soil net nitrogen mineralization rate in Eucalyptus forest could be the decrease of available substrates and the uptake of larger amount of soil nutrients by the fast growth of Eucalyptus. The soil nutrients in shrubland had a quick restoration rate after burning.

[Characteristics of CO2, CH4 and N2O emissions from winter-fallowed paddy fields in hilly area of South China].

With closed static chamber and modified gas chromatograph (HP5890 II), the in situ measurements were made on the CO2, CH4 and N2O emissions from winter-fallowed paddy fields in the hilly area of South China. Gas samples were taken simultaneously from the fields with and without rice stubble. The results showed that both of the fields had the peak value of CO2 flux in the late afternoon. In the fields with and without rice stubble, the CH4 flux was positive in the day time while negative in the night, and the N2O flux in the day time was 1.79 and 1.58 times as much as that in the night, respectively. The diurnal average CO2 flux in the field with rice stubble was significantly higher than that in bare field (P < 0.05). Correlation analysis demonstrated that the CO2 flux in winter-fallowed paddy fields had significant correlations with soil temperature, aboveground temperature, and air temperature, suggesting that temperature was the main factor affecting the CO2 emission from rice field after harvesting. During the observation time (from 2003-11-10 to 2004-01-18), the average CO2, CH4 and N2O fluxes in the field with rice stubble were (180.69 +/- 21.21) mg x m(-2) x h(-1), (-0.04 +/- 0.01) mg x m(-2) x h(-1) and (21.26 +/- 19.31) microg x m(-2) x h(-1), respectively. Compared with bare field, the CO2 flux in the field with rice stubble was 13.06% higher, CH4 absorption increased by 50%, while N2O flux was 60.75% lower. It was concluded that the winter fallowed paddy field in hilly area of South China was the source of atmospheric CO2 and N2O, and the sink of atmospheric CH4.