Abstract. The Gonghe Basin is a sandified and desertified region of China, but the distribution of soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN) along the cultivation chronosequence across this ecologically fragile region is not well understood. This study was carried out to understand the effects of restoration with Salix cheilophila for different periods of time (6, 11, 16, 21 years) to test whether it enhanced C and N storage. Soil samples, in four replications from seven depth increments (0-10, 10-20, 20-30, 30-50, 50-100, 100-150 and 150-200 cm), were collected in each stand. Soil bulk density, SOC, TN, aboveground biomass and root biomass were measured. Results indicated that changes occurred in both the upper and deeper soil layers with an increase in revegetation time. The 0-200 cm soil showed that the 6-year stand gained 3.89 Mg C ha −1 and 1.00 Mg N ha −1 , which accounted for 40.82 % of the original SOC and 11.06 % of the TN of the 0-year stand. The 11-year stand gained 7.82 Mg C ha −1 and 1.98 Mg N ha −1 in the 0-200 cm soil layers, accounting for 58.06 % of the SOC and 19.80 % of the TN of the 0-year stand. The 16-year stand gained 11.32 Mg C ha −1 and 3.30 Mg N ha −1 in the 0-200 cm soil layers, accounting for 66.71 % of the SOC and 21.98 % of the TN of the 0-year stand. The 21-year stand gained 13.05 Mg C ha −1 and 5.45 Mg N ha −1 from the same soil depth, accounting for 69.79 % of the SOC and 40.47 % of the TN compared with the 0-year stand. The extent of these changes depended on soil depth and plantation age. The results demonstrated that, as stand age increased, the storage of SOC and TN increased. These results further indicated that restoration with S. cheilophila has positive impacts on the Gonghe Basin and has increased the capacity of SOC sequestration and N storage. The shrub's role as carbon sink is compatible with system management and persistence. The findings are significant for assessing C and N sequestration accurately in semi-arid degraded high, cold sandy regions in the future.

BackgroundIn a semi-arid ecosystem, water is one of the most important factors that affect vegetation dynamics, such as shrub plantation. A water use strategy, including the main water source that a plant species utilizes and water use efficiency (WUE), plays an important role in plant survival and growth. The water use strategy of a shrub is one of the key factors in the evaluation of stability and sustainability of a plantation.Methodology/Principal Findings Caragana intermedia is a dominant shrub of sand-binding plantations on sand dunes in the Gonghe Basin in northeastern Tibet Plateau. Understanding the water use strategy of a shrub plantation can be used to evaluate its sustainability and long-term stability. We hypothesized that C. intermedia uses mainly deep soil water and its WUE increases with plantation age. Stable isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen were used to determine the main water source and leaf carbon isotope discrimination was used to estimate long-term WUE. The root system was investigated to determine the depth of the main distribution. The results showed that a 5-year-old C. intermedia plantation used soil water mainly at a depth of 0–30 cm, which was coincident with the distribution of its fine roots. However, 9- or 25-year-old C. intermedia plantations used mainly 0–50 cm soil depth water and the fine root system was distributed primarily at soil depths of 0–50 cm and 0–60 cm, respectively. These sources of soil water are recharged directly by rainfall. Moreover, the long-term WUE of adult plantations was greater than that of juvenile plantations.ConclusionsThe C. intermedia plantation can change its water use strategy over time as an adaptation to a semi-arid environment, including increasing the depth of soil water used for root growth, and increasing long-term WUE.