Environmental Geochemistry and Health 26: 97–103, 2004.

97
Ó 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

Soil quality evolution after land use change from paddy soil to vegetable landw

Z.H. Cao 1,4, J.F. Huang 2, C.S. Zhang3 & A.F. Li 2

1
The Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China
2
Soil and Fertilizer Service Station, Jiaxing Zhejiang, China
3
The Academy of Agricultural Science, Jiaxing Zhejiang, China
4
Author for correspondence (tel.: +86-25 86881057; fax: +86-25 86881000; e-mail: zhcao@issas.ac.cn)

Received 17 February 2003 Accepted form 18 August 2003

Key words: acidification, N and P over accumulation, paddy soil, salinization, soil quality, vegetable land

Abstract
A survey was done in 15 typical villages, 150 soil and 86 vegetable plant samples were taken in Jiaxin
prefecture of the Taihu Lake region, northern Zhejian province. Results indicate that after 15–20 years land
use changed from the paddy rice–wheat (or oilseed rape) double cropping system, to a continuous vegetable
land has caused soil quality dramatic change. (1) Acidification: average soil pH was 5.4; about 61% of total
samples were pH < 5.5. It was 0.9 units lower than 10 years ago with same upland vegetable cultivation
and was 1.2 units lower than soil pH of paddy rice–wheat (or oilseed rape) rotation. (2) Fertilizer salt
accumulation: the average salt content was 0.28%, among these about 36.2% of the total samples contained
more than 0.3%. (3) Nitrate N and available phosphorus (P) over accumulation: on average it was 279 mg
NO3-N/kg, and 45–115 mg P/kg. Nitrate N four times higher and available P 4–10 times more than it is in
present paddy rice–wheat rotation soils respectively. This has caused wide concern because of possible
groundwater and well drinking water pollution by leached nitrate N and the P losses to water by runoff
from vegetable lands induce surface water eutrophication.

1. Introduction
There is an increasing trend of land use change
from paddy rice to upland vegetables (or other
land cash crops, such as fruits and flower planta-
tion etc.), with or without plastic film covering,
since the end of last century in east and southeast
China. For example it was only 2000 hm2 in Jiaxin
prefecture, Zhejiang province in 1997, but it was
5467 hm2 in 2001. This large-scale land use change
was driven by several factors. First, China solved
its food security problem at the end of 80s, due to
reform policy accelerated food production since
1978. Second, there was a dramatic increase in
demand for vegetables and fruits due to both im-
w
This work is the part of the National Important Basic
Research Plan Project (No. G1999011806).
proved living standards and increased urban
populations. Thirdly, government encouraged
farmers to increase their income by land use
change. Because the price of food grain is much
lower than the price of vegetables and fruits at
present in China.
However, after 3–5 years land use change
(3–4 years for plastic film covered vegetable land,
and 5–8 years for open vegetable land), farmers
found that vegetable yields were gradually
decreasing, with some plants showing abnormal
growth and deformed fruits. Various ‘plant dis-
eases’ which were not easy to control by usual
pesticides were reported. Preliminary survey indi-
cated that these abnormal growth phenomena
were more severe in the old vegetable planting
areas than the newly developed areas, in plastic
98 Z.H. CAO ET AL.
film covered land than in open field, and in con-
tinuous planting fields than in crop rotation land.
This paper presents results of a field survey in
Jiaxin prefecture at southeast bank of the Thaihu
Lake. The purposes are to figure out the soil
quality change since the land use transition.
2. Methods of field survey and analytical
procedures
2.1. Sampling methods
Soil survey was placed in the Jianxin, Jianshan and
Pinghu three counties of Jisxin prefecture, Zheji-
ang Province. About 10 hm2 of vegetable upland
from each county were selected according to soil
types and similar years of land use change. On
average four samples were taken from each hectare
land. There were two dates of surface soil sam-
pling: one at the end of vegetable harvest on June
and the other when abnormal plant growth ap-
peared. Five points which evenly distributed in
cross line, 0–15 cm depth surface soil were sam-
pled and integrated, stepwise sub-sampling to
form a 1 kg soil sample was taken to laboratory
for further analysis. A soil sample was taken at
same time from nearby paddy or vegetable field
with normal plant growth as a check. Ground
water samples were also taken when it was neces-
sary for NO3-N testing.
Soil analysis data from the second national soil
survey (1981–1983) are cited for the purpose of
comparison with our results.
Plant tissues were also sampled when abnormal
growth was observed. Whole plants including
roots, stem, leaves and fruits were taken. Normal
growth plant was also sampled as check for labo-
ratory analysis.
2.2. Analysis methods
Soil analysis for total N (Kjeldahl method), P
(molybdenum method), K (flame photometer
Table 1. Vegetable land soil pH distribution of 128 samples (1999–2000).
Soil pH value 3.5–4.0 4.1–4.5
No. of samples 1 11
% of total sample 0.78 8.59
method); for soil pH (soil/distilled water or 1 M
KCL solution ¼ 1:5, pH meter); total soluble salt
(soil/distilled water ¼ 1:5, filtered, evaporated,
dried 4 h at 105 °C and weighed). Ca2+, and
Mg2+ (EDTA complexing titration method), K+,
and Na+ (flame photometer method); HCO
3
(electrometer titration method), Cl) (AgNO3
titration method), SO2
4 (EDTA indirect com-
plexing titration method), NO
3 (cooperated cad-
mium reduction method); available B (boiled
water extraction – azomethine-H – C17H15O9S2N,
colorimeter method at 420–430 nm), available Zn,
Mn, Cu, Fe (DTPA–CaCl2–TEA at pH 7.3
extraction, ICP-AES method) – according to the
methods described by Sparks et al. (1996), Liu
(1996), Lu (2000).
Water sample analysis for N1O
3 (ultraviolet
photometer method of A ¼ A220–A2755 at 220 nm
and 275 nm), Plant tissue samples for N, P, K and
Ca, Mg, S, and some micro-nutrients analysis was
also according to the methods described by Sparks
et al. (1996), Liu (1996), Lu (2001).
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Soil acidification
The average soil pH of 128 vegetable soil samples
was 5.4; as compared with the historical data of
these vegetable lands, with an average soil pH of
6.3 during the second national soil survey. It was
reduced by about 0.9 unit of soil pH, and clearly
indicates a trend of soil acidification due to con-
tinuous vegetable production. The detailed soil pH
distribution of 128 vegetable soil samples as shown
in Table 1.
As for the traditional summer paddy rice/winter
wheat (oil seed rape) rotation, the soil pH was not
significantly changed in the same period. For
example, it was pH 6.5–7.4 with an average pH of
6.8 during the second national soil survey (Agri-
culture and Forestry Bureau, Jiaxin Prefecture,
4.6–5.0 5.1–5.5 5.6–6.0 6.1–6.5 6.6–7.0 >7.1
32 33 26 15 7 3
25.00 26.56 20.31 11.72 5.47 2.34
 SOIL QUALITY EVOLUTION AFTER LAND USE 99

Table 2. Soil pH change under various crop plantation.

Crop plantation No. samples Soil pH Location History of land use

Plastic covered vegetable 20 4.3 Pinghu 6 years

Open field vegetable 20 5.4 Pinghu 10 years
Open field vegetable 15 5.2 Jiaxin 20 years
Paddy rice/Wheat rotation 15 6.6 Jiaxin >40 years

Table 3. Soluble salt content in ploughed layer soil under plastic covered plantationa.

Salt % <0.1 0.1–0.2 0.2–0.3 0.3–0.4 0.4–0.5 >0.5

No. of samples 3 32 18 10 12 8
% of total samples 3.6 38.6 21.7 12.0 14.5 9.6
a
Measured by oven dried residue methods.

1991), and it was pH 6.3–7.6 with average pH of
6.6 at present. This illustrates the stability of soil
pH under a summer paddy rice/winter wheat (oil
seed rape) cropping rotation system.
Data from Table 2 further indicate that under
plastic covered (or plastic greenhouse) plantation
conditions, more intensive crop production (5–6
harvests per year), and very high application rate
of organic and inorganic N, P, K fertilizers in-
duced very fast soil acidification. Open field vege-
table production usually 2–3 harvests a year, also
needs more fertilizer input than a traditional
paddy rice/wheat rotation system (Table 4), so that
the soil pH of continuous vegetable land is also
lower than paddy rice/wheat rotation system land.
Both organic and inorganic fertilizers make the
soil more acid due to nitrification and physiologi-
cal acidity. Strong acid soil condition is detri-
mental to vegetable growth.
3.2. Soil salinization under plastic covered
plantation
Soil parent materials in this region are alluvial fan
by rivers and lakes; salt content in the plough layer
is usually lower than 0.1%. However the plough
layer salt content was 0.28% on average during
this survey of plastic film covered or plastic film
greenhouse plantation soil (Table 3).
Table 3 shows that most of the ploughed layer
soils contained more than 0.2% soluble salt under
plastic covered or plastic greenhouse plantation
conditions, about 58% of total samples contained
soluble salt concentration higher than 0.2%, and
about 36% were higher than 0.3%. Vegetable plant
growth was seriously damaged by such a high salt
concentration and in very serious cases the plant
died. Sometimes large amounts of salt accumu-
lated on the soil surface resulting in white color
similar to natural saline soils.
Results from eight paired soil samples taken from
root zones with and without salt damaged vegeta-
ble plants are compared in Table 4. The results re-
veal that salt damaged soil had about twice the
electrical conductivity, three times the salt content,
and twice the nitrate N than in undamaged soil.
These accumulated soluble salts are not from
nature but from over-use of fertilizers. Data in
Table 5 shows that the application rate of fertil-
izers for vegetable plantation in plastic covered or
plastic greenhouse land is 2–3 times the rate for
open field vegetable production; and 4–5 times
higher than the rate used for the paddy rice/wheat
cropping rotation system. Higher rates of fertilizer
use with no leaching by natural rainfall, but high
evaporation and transpiration under plastic cov-
ered or plastic greenhouse conditions have pro-
moted soil secondary salinization.
Table 4. Comparison of the soil properties of tomato plant root
zones with and without salt damage (data is an average of eight
paired samples).
Soil Electric Sol. salt pH NO3-N
properties cond. (ms/cm) (%) (H2O) (mg/kg)
Without damage 0.548 0.236 5.49 197
With damage 0.968 0.738 5.38 394
100 Z.H. CAO ET AL.

Table 5. Fertilizer application rate under various land use of plantation.

Fertilizer Ratea Manure Mineral N Mineral P (P2O5) Mineral K (K2O)

Plastic covered 111.3 1080 522 436.5

Open vegetable field 84.9 780 348 291
Paddy rice/wheat 7.5b 530 60 96
a
Rate: Manure in (tones/hm2), mineral N, P, K in (kg N, P2O5, K2O/hm2) respectively.
b
Manure is not widely used in cereal crops at present, but the rice straw and wheat or oilseed rape straw are encouraged
to feedback and burn are forbidden by law. Therefore 7.5 tons per hectare per year are calculated from many field
experiments, demonstration farms used various ways to return straw in rice–wheat rotation system in this region.

Table 6. Soil ions from soil under plants with and without physiological diseasea.

Soil ions % K+ Na+ Ca++ Mg++ 4 Cations 4 Anionsb CECc

With D. 0.0204 0.0073 0.0383 0.0096 0.0755 0.1100 18.65

Without D. 0.0096 0.0078 0.0317 0.0079 0.0570 0.1117 18.03
+)% +113.6 )7.20 +20.74 +21.23 +32.53 )1.51 + 3.44
a
With and without physiological disease soil samples were taken from root zones of two plastic greenhouses where
plants with and without disease appeared, n = 4.
b )
Four anions: HCO



3 , Cl , SO4 , and NO3 .
c
CEC measured as me/100 g.

The results in Table 6 show that accumulated
soluble salts in soil (mostly K, Ca, Mg and less Na)
were about 32.5% higher where plants showed
physiological disorders compared with soil with
normal plants growth. The anions, Cl) and HCO
3 season and the wet season (Tripathi et al. 1997;
increased by 6 and 3%, respectively, and SO
4 de-
creased by about 8.5%, clearly responding to the
heavy use of NH4HCO3 and KCL, little use of
(NH4)2SO4, and K2SO4 types of nitrogen and
potassium fertilizers.
3.3. Soil nitrate N and available phosphorus
accumulation
Soil nitrate nitrogen (NO3 -N) accumulation is a
major concern after land use change from irrigated
paddy rice/wheat (oilseed rape) cropping rotation,
to continuous upland vegetable plantation. Gen-
erally nitrate nitrogen in paddy soil during flooded
rice growing season is very low, but is relatively
high during winter wheat season in this region
(Zhu et al. 2000; Wang et al. 2001). In some cases
under rain-fed rice production, nitrate N levels in
groundwater can be higher than the limit set by the
WHO especially in the period between the dry
Shreatha & Ladha 1998).
However, after soil use change to continuous
vegetable plantation, soil nitrate N is dramatically
increased. On average it was about 48 mg/kg in
open field vegetable land, but it was 254 mg/kg in
plastic film covered vegetable land in the Taihu
Lake region. Of the 39 soil samples taken from
plastic film covered or plastic film greenhouse
vegetable land about 26% samples contained 100–
200 mg/kg and about 60% samples contained
more than 200 mg/kg NO3 -N (Table 7). When soil
nitrate N is over 200 mg/kg, it will potentially
damage vegetable growth. When soil nitrate N is
over 300 mg/kg (about 31% samples passed this
value in this survey), it will certainly induce plant
growth problems.

Table 7. Soil nitrate N content of plastic film covered vegetable land.

NO3 -N (mg/kg) <100 100–200 200–300 300–400 >400

No. of samples 5 10 12 4 8
% of samples 12.8 25.6 30.8 10.3 20.5

Soil nitrate N is significantly correlated with
electric conductivity of soil (water:soil ¼ 5:1), the
correlation formula for 39 soil samples is given
below:
Y ðsoil electric conductivityÞ
¼ 0:188 þ 0:001895X ðNO
3 -NÞ; r
¼ 0:94 ðn ¼ 39Þ
According to this survey and the above formula,
the critical nitrate -N for plant normal growth is
associated with an electrical conductivity of about
0.6 mS/cm, which is somewhat lower than the
value reported in Japan (1 mS/cm).
On average of the soil available phosphorus in
plough layer of paddy rice–wheat rotation field is
about 10–12 mg P kg)1 in this region (Wang et al.,
2001, Zhang et al., 2003), however, it was ranged
from 45 to 115 mg P kg)1 (Table 8), on average
60–80 mg P kg)1. Results of the 10 high fertilizer
application rate (HFR) soils and the seven middle
fertilizer application rate (MFR) soils showed
there is a very significant difference in the content
of available nitrogen, phosphorus, and electrical
conductivity, but no in the content of available
potassium and pH value. However, the content of
soil available P is 4 times higher in MFR, and
about 10 times higher in HFR vegetable soils than
in paddy rice–wheat rotation soils.
4. Soil nitrate and phosphorus accumulation in
relation to water quality
Leaching of nitrate N from ploughed zone is a
main cause of low nitrogen use efficiency (NUE)
and N loss from soil. Higher concentrations of
nitrate N in the ploughed layer of vegetable land
may induce more nitrogen runoff into surface
watersheds (it may not be the major problem in
plastic film covered conditions, but it is in open
Table 8. Soil quality under plastic film covered vegetable land affected by fertilizer application rate.
Sample no Avail. N
HFR 10 249.1
MFR 07 183.9
T -test 2.82a
a
t0.05 (15) = 2.131.
b
t0.05 (15) = 2.947.
SOIL QUALITY EVOLUTION AFTER LAND USE 101
field conditions) or leaching from the upper soil
layer down to the ground water. Higher phos-
phorus (P) accumulation in vegetable land is a very
high potential risk to eutrification of the sur-
rounding surface water. According to Zhang et al.
(2003) that P losses from rice season by runoff was
146–221 g P/hm2 in normal P application rate,
however, that it increased sharply to 400 g P/hm2
when P application rate increased to five times as
usual rate. On the other hand, there is much more
runoff flow in vegetable open field than in paddy
rice field under same rainfall condition. It implies
that the P losses by runoff will be much higher in
vegetable lands than in paddy fields.
Increased nitrate concentration in drinking wa-
ter – the WHO suggested that drinking water
should not contain more than 50 mg NO
3 /I
(WHO 1985) or 10 mg NO3 -N/I as recommended
in USA (Lagreid et al. 1999).
The groundwater under about 22% of the cul-
tivated land in the EU has an NO
3 concentration
above 50 mg NO
/I (Mckenna 1998). Similar high
3
concentrations in groundwater are also reported
from some irrigated areas of west Missisippi in the
USA (Spalding & Exner 1993), and also from
northern China (Zhang et al. 1996).
Most of the paddy soils in the Taihu Lake Re-
gion belong to clay loam and loam clay-heavy
textured type soils (Li 1992). Under a paddy rice/
wheat rotation system, nitrate leaching down to
the groundwater is not likely happen during the
rice season. There is a relatively high NO
3 con-
centration in leaching water during the wheat
season, but wheat and oilseed rape have deep and
extensive root systems that effectively deplete the
soil soluble N. In total, it does not exceed the
WHO suggested limit, with the nitrogen applica-
tion rates of 300 kg N/ha in rice and 225 kg N/ha
in wheat (Wang et al. 2001).
Continuous vegetable cropping, with very
intensive land use (3–4 harvests) requires very high
Avail. P (mg kg)1) Avail. K EC (mS/cm) pH (H2O)
115.5 319.3 1.19 5.27
45.5 318.0 0.14 5.36
3.14b 0.014 6.97b 0.35
102 Z.H. CAO ET AL.
application rates of fertilizer N, also most vegeta-
ble crops have only shallow roots systems, there-
fore NO
3 leaching can be substantial (Addiscott
et al., 1996; Bija-Singh, 1996; Zhang et al., 1996.).
Ma et al. (1987) reported that 31% of well water
from 51 wells sampled were exceeded the value of
10 mg NO
3 -N/l, Xing et al. (2001) reported that
the average NO
3 -N concentration was 7.89 mg/l
(ranged from 0.31–43.37 mg/I) and that water
from 28% of 40 wells sampled in this region was
over the limit suggested by USA. It has been found
that the main form of nitrogen in well water is the
nitrate nitrogen; while ammonium nitrogen was
not detected in 87.5% of well water samples. Ni-
trate pollution in drinking water in this region is
causing considerable concern.
In this region most paddy soils are heavy texture
type, and under present application rates of N
fertilizer for rice and wheat, and the NO

3 -N
concentration in leaching water has not yet ex-
ceeded the limit as suggested by the WHO or the
USA mentioned above. The higher NO

3 -N con-
centration in well water in this region may reflect
events of historical accumulation, or nitrate from
other sources.
5. Conclusion
Soil quality has deteriorated due to soil use change
from paddy rice–wheat (or oilseed rape) rotation
system to continuous vegetable plantation espe-
cially under plastic film covered conditions. The
main changes of soil quality are as follows:
1. Acidification: under plastic film covered vege-
table land, the average soil pH was 5.4. It was
0.9 unit lower than 10 years ago for the same
vegetable land cultivation, and was 1.2 unit
lower than soil pH of paddy rice–wheat (or oil
rape seed) rotation field. It was about 0.57 unit
lower than upland vegetable soils at same place
but without plastic film covering.
2. Fertilizer salt accumulation: results revealed
that the average fertilizer salts content of soils
with continuous upland vegetables cultivation
was 0.28%, among these about 36.2% of the
samples contained over than 0.3% fertilizer
salts, as compared with <0.1% salt concentra-
tion in the rice–wheat rotation field condition;
3. Nitrate nitrogen and available phosphorus over-
accumulation in vegetable land soils: on average
it was 279 mg NO3 -N/kg, and about 30.8% of
the samples were higher than 300 mg NO3 -N/
kg. It was 45–115 mg P/kg of soil available P. In
continuous vegetable land, soil nitrate nitrogen
content was four times higher, and available
P content was 4–10 times higher than in the
paddy rice–wheat soils. These may be of concern
regarding groundwater and well drinking water
pollution by leached nitrate N and surface water
eutrophication promoted by P loads via runoff
flow.
Acknowledgement
The national basic research plan project (973) and
Zhejiang Provincial and Jiaxin Prefecture Science
foundation’s program supported this work. Au-
thors hopes to express sincerely thanks to those
coworkers: S.G. Ma, J.J. Fen, C.H. Xiang, C.X.
Yang, X.L. Huang and Z.L. Qian for their excel-
lent job done during the field survey and labora-
tory analysis. Also hope to thanks the reviewers
for their valuable comments and marks made this
paper to be published.
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