Carbon pools in an arid shrubland in Chile under natural and afforested conditions

Carbon stock density in planted versus natural Pinus massoniana forests in sub-tropical China

“…However, Liao et al (2010) suggested that the ecosystem carbon stock of plantations is reduced by 28 % compared with the natural forests. Perez-Quezada et al (2011) also reported that carbon pools in an arid shrub land are higher under natural conditions than under afforested conditions. The above-mentioned information on the differences in carbon sequestration of natural and planted forests may have been misguided by many factors; thus, opposing results were obtained.…”

“…With the decrease in the land area of natural forests and the increase in the land area of planted forests, the need to determine whether the planted forests exhibit ecosystem productivity and carbon stock similar to those of natural forests has drawn much attention Guo and Ren 2014;Liao et al 2010;Perez-Quezada et al 2011;Thornley and Cannell 2000). Whether carbon sequestration is greater in natural or in planted forests is debated.…”

Improvements in Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Capacities after Shrub Planting to Stabilize Sand Dunes in China’s Horqin Sandy Land

“…Researchers have investigated the effects of afforestation on soil carbon and nitrogen storage, and especially on SOC storage, because of the roles of this storage in determining soil quality and in the carbon cycle of arid and semiarid areas [34][35][36][37]. In the present study, we quantified the effects of the conversion of sand dunes to shrub plantations in a semiarid region of northern China.…”

“…During the period from 5 to 29 years after afforestation of Australian pastures, SOC did not change substantially, but TN decreased greatly in the plantations [35]. In an arid grazing region in Chile, SOC decreased by 32% 2 years after establishing shrub plantations [34]. In New Zealand, the afforestation of grassland had no net effect on SOC even 20 years after planting [38].…”

Multi-scale variability of soil carbon and nitrogen in the middle reaches of the Heihe River basin, northwestern China

“…As the repository for approximately 60% of the global terrestrial C pool, soil organic matter (SOM) is sensitive to agricultural management such as tillage (Dikgwatlhe et al, 2014;Urioste et al, 2006), fertilization (Su et al, 2006;Yang et al, 2007), land use change (Gami et al, 2009;Post and Kwon, 2000;Wei et al, 2014aWei et al, , 2014b, grazing (Pringle et al, 2014;Silveira et al, 2013) and afforestation and deforestation Zeng et al, 2014). Contradictory results on the impacts of afforestation and land management change on soil C and TN sequestration have been reported Parras-Alcántara et al, 2014;Perez-Quezada et al, 2011;Zeng et al, 2014) due to the dependence on tree types, stand ages, soil properties and depth and previous land uses (Côté et al, 2000;Wei et al, 2012;Zeng et al, 2014). Changes in pedogenic and hydrological processes caused by natural factors and human activities both affect C and N cycles.…”