Responses of soil nutrient to driving mechanism in Taihu Lake basin in last 20 years

The objectives of this study is to understand the changing law of soil nutrient quality in Taihu Lake basin, Yangtze Delta in last 20 years, and reveal the relationship between soil nutrient changes and human driving forces in regional level over long period of time. Experiment on long-term collecting samples was conducted to study changes of soil organic matter, total N, available N, available P and available K in Dongting town, Wuxi city during the last 20 years. The paper analyses the co-relationship of the fluctuation of soil nutrient and state policy, cultivating practice, agricultural input, and per hectare agricultural net income. The results showed that at first the content of soil organic matter increased, then decreased, and increased again. The content of total N and available N steadily increased. The content of available K and available P steadily decreased. The authors found that the influence of state policy and cultivating practice on soil nutrient quality index (SNQI) is obvious, agricultural input and SNQI are positively correlated, and per hectare agricultural net income and SNQI are negatively correlated. © 2001 Springer.