Effect of long-term intensive vegetable and corn cultivation with inorganic fertilizer on soil properties in mountain agriculture region

The investigation research was carried to study the variation of long-term intensive corn (Corn-ChangYang and Corn-EnShi, abbreviated as C-CY and C-ES) and vegetable (Vegetable-ChangYang and Vegetable-EnShi, abbreviated as V-CY and V-ES) cultivation on soil physical-chemical and biological properties in ChangYang and EnShi mountain agriculture region in Hubei province. The results list as follows: Vegetable cultivation applied with long-term inorganic fertilizer present the potential acidification trend. When compared with abandoned, corn and vegetable cultivation applied with inorganic fertilizer all can increased available phosphorus (AP) (40.59-165.50%), available zinc (AZn) (43.64-261.54%) and available boron (AB) (15.00-121.05%) content. The alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen (AN) and available kalium (AK) content of corn cultivation decreased by 6.55-13.29% and 21.08-79.32%, and increased by 35.34-51.73% and 42.83-44.80% for vegetable cultivation comparing to abandoned, respectively. The reduction of cation exchange capacity (CEC) and base saturation (BS) content of vegetable cultivation was much more than that of corn cultivation, and especially for the exchangeable calcium (E-Ca2+) content. The effect of different regions on soil physical properties and microbial carbon using capacity was much more than cultivation model. Long-term applied with inorganic fertilizer of corn and vegetable cultivation increased soil fungi and Actinomyces number. The highest microbial carbon using capacity was obtained by corn cultivation. No matter microbial number or carbon using capacity, the pH, AN, AK, E-Ca2+, exchangeable magnesium (E-Mg2+) and total porosity were the dominant influencing factors. For microbial number and carbon using capacity, the effect of exchangeable base cations content was much more in vegetable cultivation, however, soil pH value and physical properties was much more in corn cultivation.