Effects of burning and raking on soil properties of steppe

An experiment was conducted to examine if raking was an alternative management strategy to replace burning by comparing the effect of burning and raking on soil properties of steppe. This study showed that the burning and the annual mowingraking increased soil temperature by about 2.26 ℃ and 1.48 ℃ at 5 cm and 10 cm depth, and 1.74 ℃ and 0.87 ℃ at 15 cm and 20 cm depth, respectively, and that the burning and the mowingraking significantly reduced the content of soil microaggregate(P0.05), the diameter of which was over 0.25 mm. However, no significant difference in soil microaggregate was found between burning and annual mowingraking. The burning and mowingraking significantly decreased the organic carbon and total N (P0.05), and the burning decreased more soil organic carbon and total N than the mowingraking did. Annual burning reduced soil organic carbon by 11.69 g/kg at the 10 cm depth and 8.00 g/kg at the 20 cm depth, and reduced total N by 0.633 g/kg at the 10 cm depth and 0.752 g/kg at the 20 cm depth, while annual mowingraking decreased less soil organic carbon and total N had than burning did. This study also showed that the burning decreased the C/N ratios of soil at the 10 cm depth（P0.05）, while mowingraking did not affect the C/N ratios of soil.