Soil organic matter and silt contents determine soil particle surface electrochemical properties across a long-term natural restoration grassland

CATENA

JL A，ZW A，FHA B，CX A，RM A，SZA B

Vegetation restoration is an effective way to rebuild degraded ecosystems and restore soil function. Soil surface electrochemical properties, including specific surface area, cation exchange capacity, surface charge density, surface electric field strength, and surface potential, are often used as indicators to evaluate agricultural soil quality and fertility. However, little attention has been payed to the effect of natural revegetation on soil surface electrochemical properties. In this work, we selected a grassland restoration chronosequence (slope cropland, 0 years; natural grasslands restored for 3, 8, 22 and 24 years, i.e. NR3, NR8, NR22 and NR24, respectively) to investigate the changes of soil surface electrochemical properties along with vegetative restoration. Our results showed that surface charge density and surface potential for restored grassland ranged from 0.16 to 0.20 C m and from 94 to 109 mV, with an average of 0.18 C m and 101 mV, respectively.