Predicting and Correcting Helicopter Counts of Moose with Observations made from Fixed-Wing Aircraft in Southern Quebec

Farmland soil carbon and nitrogen contents under intensive agricultural production are the important indices for the assessment of the soil fertility sustainability. This paper measured the soil pH, electrical conductivity (EC), organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), and delta13C and delta15N isotope abundances of four types of farmland, i.e., conventional rice-broad bean rotation field, open vegetable field, 3-year plastic covered greenhouse field, and > 10-year plastic covered greenhouse field, aimed to understand the effects of intensive agricultural production degree on soil properties. In the open vegetable field, 3-year plastic covered greenhouse field, and > 10-year plastic covered greenhouse field, the soil (0-20 cm) pH decreased by 1.1, 0.8, and 0.7, and the soil EC was 4.2, 4.9, and 5.2 folds of that in conventional rice-broad bean rotation field, respectively. With the increasing year of plastic covered greenhouse production, the soil SOC and TN contents decreased after an initial increase. Comparing with those under rice-broad bean rotation, the SOC content in 0-20, 20-40, 40-60, 60-80 and 80-100 cm soil layers in >10-year plastic covered greenhouse decreased by 54%, 46%, 60%, 63%, and 59%, and the TN content decreased by 53%, 53%, 71%, 82%, and 85%, respectively. Intensive agricultural production degree had significant effects on the soil SOC and TN contents and delta13C and delta15N abundances. The delta13C abundance was significantly negatively correlated with the soil SOC, suggesting that the soil delta13C abundance could be regarded as an index for the assessment of carbon cycle in farmland soils under effects of human activities.