Influence of salt marsh vegetation on spatial distribution of soil carbon and nitrogen in Yancheng coastal wetland

: Soil samples under different salt marsh vegetations in Yancheng coastal wetland were collected, and their organic carbon (C) and total nitrogen (N) were determined, aimed to analyze the influence of salt marsh vegetation on the spatial distribution of soil carbon and nitrogen. The results showed that the organic C and total N contents in top soils varied from 1.71 to 7.92 g x kg(-1) and from 0.17 to 0.36 g x kg(-1), respectively, and there were significant differences among different vegetation zones. The top soils organic C and total N contents in vegetation zones were higher than those in mudflat without vegetation. In the soil profiles in vegetation zones, organic C and total N contents had a trend of decreasing with depth, but changed little below the depth of 15 cm. Soil organic C was significantly positively correlated with soil total N and C/N, but soil total N had no significant correlation with soil C/N.