Soil chemical and microbiological properties along a chronosequence of Caragana microphylla Lam. plantations in the Horqin sandy land of Northeast China
Caragana microphylla Lam., a leguminous shrub, is a dominant native plant species widely planted to stabilize the moving and semi-moving sand dunes in the semi-arid Horqin sandy land of Northeast China. The objective of this study was to determine how C. microphylla plantations affected the physical, chemical and microbiological properties of a sandy soil. Soil samples at the depths of 0-10, 10-20, 20-30, 30-40, and 40-50cm were collected from the C. microphylla plantations with an age sequence of 0, 5, 10, and 23 years.