**6. Development trend of forest land fertilization**

The main direction of forest land nutrient management and fertilizer research is still to improve the utilization efficiency of forest nutrient elements and reduce the environmental pollution caused by nutrient elements or some non-nutrient elements brought in by fertilization [81]. According to the needs of the industry, the targeted cultivation and intensive management of trees will be carried out to realize the fertilization of trees (specialization, long-term, and precision), so as to achieve the development goal of high yield, high quality, and efficiency, taking into account the ecological benefits of the environment and the overall social benefits [82].

At present and in the future, the development mode of forest land fertilization includes using the comprehensive nutrition diagnosis method, combining with the principle of site productivity, improving the accuracy and comparability of analysis, revealing the law of forest nutrition balance, detecting the mechanism of nutrient absorption and utilization, and determining the relationship between the growth and absorption of different growth stages of plants and the rate of soil fertilizer supply [83]. Combining the theory of forest fertilization with the principle of environmental ecology, we can improve the productivity of forest land and keep the human ecological environment in harmony [84, 85]. Fertilization should be combined with the goal of forest-oriented cultivation. As a basic technical measure of forest cultivation, fertilization should be classified under different cultivation goals, and its research results should also be carried out in production according to the cultivation goal [86]. The application of forest land precision fertilization technology and the application of forest nutrition management information system supported by 3S technology in forest land fertilization will achieve precision fertilization for different tree species, different soil, and different development stages and improve fertilizer utilization rate [87]. In view of the long-term nature of the absorption of nutrient elements by trees and in order to meet the demand of large-scale operational fertilization in mountain forest areas, the development of new forest-specific fertilizer will gradually develop to high concentration, slow effect, and special compound fertilizer [88]. In the study of plant nutrition molecular genetics, while improving the fertilization methods, we should focus on the research and cultivation of good varieties to adapt to the specific soil environment, so as to realize the transformation from suitable trees to suitable varieties [89]. The research frontier of root state and rhizosphere micro ecosystem is to explore the dynamics of soil root interface nutrients and their environment, so as to clarify the biological effectiveness of soil nutrients [90]. The application of high-tech technology, such as atomic absorption spectrometer, electron probe, and various automatic analyzers, provides necessary conditions for diagnosis and fertilization [91]. In forest is a very important factor in the formation of water source of rivers and lakes. The safety of fertilizer application in forest land is closely related to the safety of water body, so the research and application of new nonpollution fertilizer is particularly important [92].

#### **7. Conclusion**

As an important green raw material, trees are favored under the great development of ecological construction. In recent years, China's demand for wood is growing day by day. The cultivation of artificial forest, timber forest, and the construction of industrial raw material forest have been greatly supported by policies and funds. With the rapid development of plantation and the continuous improvement of its area, it still faces the problems of insufficient total amount of

**35**

**Acknowledgements**

**Conflict of interest**

*Research Progress of Forest Land Nutrient Management in China*

forest resources and poor quality. However, for a long time, the utilization rate of fertilizer in China is low, which has caused great economic losses and also brought great impact on the environment. Research and development of new fertilizer can effectively solve the above problems. Although there are still some problems in the manufacturing process of new fertilizer, due to its outstanding advantages, it will

The research of forest land fertilization is developing rapidly, and rational fertilization has become an important technical measure to cultivate short rotation industrial timber forest and accelerate economic forest benefits. At the same time, many forestry workers realize that the simple fertilization cannot achieve the expected effect on greatly improving the growth of trees. In addition to some technical problems that limit the fertilizer effect to a certain extent, how to reasonably apply fertilizer according to the water status of forest land is the key to the problem. It needs to be especially pointed out that at present, most of the research on water and fertilizer balance is in agricultural production and has made great achievements, while the research on water and fertilizer balance in forestry is still in its infancy. Therefore, how to apply the existing research results to the forestry production and speed up the solution to the backward situation of China's forestry production should be one of the future research topics for forestry workers. In addition, nutrient management in forest ecosystems should consider the ecological effects of fertilization under the context of global climate change, considering the potential interactions among global change factors [93, 94], nutrient input [95], and internal element cycling within forest ecosystems [96–101]. For example, in plantations experiencing intensive management, N input may induce more N leaching due to excessive application, especially in areas characterized by acid soils [101, 102]. To prevent such N loss from soil to happen, soil amelioration should be employed to decrease N leaching via runoffs, trace gas emissions, or volatilization [102, 103], increasing the fertilization efficiency of agricultural practice [101, 102]. Presently, biochar has been widely used in soil amelioration or mitigation of soil trace gas (especially those containing N) [103, 104]. Thereby, future fertilization practice could be combined with soil amelioration strategies to obtain efficient fertilization practice and nutrient management in forest or plantation soils [103, 104].

We acknowledge the funding support by Key Scientific Research Projects of Higher Education Institutions of Henan Province of China (Award number: 19A220001), "One Hundred Professors, One Thousand Students and Ten Thousand

Villages" Fund Project of Henan Agricultural University, Doctoral Research Start-up Project of Henan Agricultural University, Agricultural Science and Technology Research Project of Science and Technology Department of Henan Province (Award number: 182102110070), and Henan Province Science and

Technology Assisted Forestry Project [Award number:(2018)68].

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93185*

usher in greater development in the near future.

#### *Research Progress of Forest Land Nutrient Management in China DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93185*

*Advances in Forest Management under Global Change*

**6. Development trend of forest land fertilization**

The main direction of forest land nutrient management and fertilizer research is still to improve the utilization efficiency of forest nutrient elements and reduce the environmental pollution caused by nutrient elements or some non-nutrient elements brought in by fertilization [81]. According to the needs of the industry, the targeted cultivation and intensive management of trees will be carried out to realize the fertilization of trees (specialization, long-term, and precision), so as to achieve the development goal of high yield, high quality, and efficiency, taking into account the ecological benefits of the environment and the overall social benefits [82].

At present and in the future, the development mode of forest land fertilization includes using the comprehensive nutrition diagnosis method, combining with the principle of site productivity, improving the accuracy and comparability of analysis, revealing the law of forest nutrition balance, detecting the mechanism of nutrient absorption and utilization, and determining the relationship between the growth and absorption of different growth stages of plants and the rate of soil fertilizer supply [83]. Combining the theory of forest fertilization with the principle of environmental ecology, we can improve the productivity of forest land and keep the human ecological environment in harmony [84, 85]. Fertilization should be combined with the goal of forest-oriented cultivation. As a basic technical measure of forest cultivation, fertilization should be classified under different cultivation goals, and its research results should also be carried out in production according to the cultivation goal [86]. The application of forest land precision fertilization technology and the application of forest nutrition management information system supported by 3S technology in forest land fertilization will achieve precision fertilization for different tree species, different soil, and different development stages and improve fertilizer utilization rate [87]. In view of the long-term nature of the absorption of nutrient elements by trees and in order to meet the demand of large-scale operational fertilization in mountain forest areas, the development of new forest-specific fertilizer will gradually develop to high concentration, slow effect, and special compound fertilizer [88]. In the study of plant nutrition molecular genetics, while improving the fertilization methods, we should focus on the research and cultivation of good varieties to adapt to the specific soil environment, so as to realize the transformation from suitable trees to suitable varieties [89]. The research frontier of root state and rhizosphere micro ecosystem is to explore the dynamics of soil root interface nutrients and their environment, so as to clarify the biological effectiveness of soil nutrients [90]. The application of high-tech technology, such as atomic absorption spectrometer, electron probe, and various automatic analyzers, provides necessary conditions for diagnosis and fertilization [91]. In forest is a very important factor in the formation of water source of rivers and lakes. The safety of fertilizer application in forest land is closely related to the safety of water body, so the research and application of new nonpollution fertilizer

As an important green raw material, trees are favored under the great development of ecological construction. In recent years, China's demand for wood is growing day by day. The cultivation of artificial forest, timber forest, and the construction of industrial raw material forest have been greatly supported by policies and funds. With the rapid development of plantation and the continuous improvement of its area, it still faces the problems of insufficient total amount of

**34**

is particularly important [92].

**7. Conclusion**

forest resources and poor quality. However, for a long time, the utilization rate of fertilizer in China is low, which has caused great economic losses and also brought great impact on the environment. Research and development of new fertilizer can effectively solve the above problems. Although there are still some problems in the manufacturing process of new fertilizer, due to its outstanding advantages, it will usher in greater development in the near future.

The research of forest land fertilization is developing rapidly, and rational fertilization has become an important technical measure to cultivate short rotation industrial timber forest and accelerate economic forest benefits. At the same time, many forestry workers realize that the simple fertilization cannot achieve the expected effect on greatly improving the growth of trees. In addition to some technical problems that limit the fertilizer effect to a certain extent, how to reasonably apply fertilizer according to the water status of forest land is the key to the problem. It needs to be especially pointed out that at present, most of the research on water and fertilizer balance is in agricultural production and has made great achievements, while the research on water and fertilizer balance in forestry is still in its infancy. Therefore, how to apply the existing research results to the forestry production and speed up the solution to the backward situation of China's forestry production should be one of the future research topics for forestry workers.

In addition, nutrient management in forest ecosystems should consider the ecological effects of fertilization under the context of global climate change, considering the potential interactions among global change factors [93, 94], nutrient input [95], and internal element cycling within forest ecosystems [96–101]. For example, in plantations experiencing intensive management, N input may induce more N leaching due to excessive application, especially in areas characterized by acid soils [101, 102]. To prevent such N loss from soil to happen, soil amelioration should be employed to decrease N leaching via runoffs, trace gas emissions, or volatilization [102, 103], increasing the fertilization efficiency of agricultural practice [101, 102]. Presently, biochar has been widely used in soil amelioration or mitigation of soil trace gas (especially those containing N) [103, 104]. Thereby, future fertilization practice could be combined with soil amelioration strategies to obtain efficient fertilization practice and nutrient management in forest or plantation soils [103, 104].
