Estimating the soil carbon sequestration potential of China's Grain for Green Project

Shi, Shengwei; Han, Pengfei

doi:10.1002/2014gb004924

Cited by 46 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…These SOC gains are consistent with similar studies carried out across the Loess Plateau (Deng et al, , ). It has been estimated that SOC accumulation after conversion of cropland to grassland averaged 59 g C m −2 y −1 across China (Shi & Han, ). Deng et al () also reported that SOC accumulation rates exhibited 45.8–108.3 g C m −2 y −1 since cropland abandonment in the center of the Loess Plateau.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil Organic Carbon Accumulation in Abandoned Croplands on the Loess Plateau

Chang

Chai

et al. 2017

Land Degrad Dev

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The Grain to Green Program in China which began in 1999 led to the conversion of 0.64 million ha of cropland to grassland on steep sloping landscapes. However, the pattern of natural vegetation succession following cropland has not been well represented in previous regional syntheses of land use change effects on soil organic carbon (SOC). A chronosequence study focusing on the vegetation succession and soil carbon stocks was conducted in the center of the Loess Plateau. The chronosequence included fields of 0, 2, 5, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15 and 25 years of self‐restoration after cropland abandonment, as well as a natural grassland reference. Plant coverage, species richness and plant biomass increased significantly with time of cropland abandonment. Over time, the species composition more nearly resembled a natural grasslands community. Cropland abandonment replenished SOC stocks by 3.6 kg C m−2 during the 25‐year self‐restoration, but the SOC accumulation was restricted to the upper soil profiles (0–60 cm). SOC accumulation rate was 88 g C m−2 y−1 in 0–30 cm and 55 g C m−2 y−1 in 30–60 cm soil depth, respectively. These carbon stocks were still significantly lower than those found in the natural grassland soil. Our results suggest that the recovery of plant communities and SOC stocks appears to be slow in this semiarid environment without revegetation effort along with appropriate field management, although the post‐agricultural soils have a high potential for carbon sequestration. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil Organic Carbon Accumulation in Abandoned Croplands on the Loess Plateau

Chang

Chai

et al. 2017

Land Degrad Dev

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“…For instance, our previous studies showed that the dominant species in shrublands (e.g., A. trewioides and Rhus chinensis ) and secondary forests ( Toona sinensis and R. sinica ) influenced the release of nutrients to soil via biochemical pathways (Nie, Chen, Wang, & Ding, ; Pan, Zhang, Liu, Li, & Wang, ). In addition, meta‐analyses showed that conversion from cropland to forest after 20–40 years resulted in a 46–69% increase in SOCC in China (Shi & Han, ; Song, Peng, Zhou, Jiang, & Wang, ) but only to a 29–53% increase worldwide after 30–50 years (Don, Schumacher, & Freibauer, ; Guo & Gifford, ). This suggests that the recovery of SOC under natural vegetation restoration in karst areas is relatively rapid.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of environmental factors on soil organic carbon under natural or managed vegetation restoration

Liu

et al. 2018

Land Degrad Dev

105

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To expand the scientific understanding of soil organic carbon (SOC) accumulation in restored ecosystems, we used 246 soil samples from a rocky catchment (10.24 km2) in an ecologically fragile karst area of southwest China and measured the effects of environmental factors under different vegetation restoration types (managed, including forage grassland and plantation forest, or natural, including grassland, shrubland, and secondary forest) on soil organic carbon content (SOCC) and soil organic carbon density (SOCD). Significantly higher SOCC and SOCD were found in natural vegetation than in managed vegetation and tillage land but no differences in SOCC or SOCD were detected between managed vegetation and tillage land. The environmental factors include rock outcrop ratio (ROR), bulk density, altitude, soil depth, slope gradient, and pH, all showing significant effect on SOC. The proportion of variations in SOCC and SOCD explained by environmental factors was higher in natural vegetation restoration than in managed vegetation restoration, and this proportion increased along the successional gradient. However, the environmental factors driving variations in SOCC and SOCD differed according to vegetation type. Soil bulk density had the strongest effect on SOCC variation in all vegetation types, except for forage grassland, in which the variation was instead controlled by ROR. The variation of SOCD was mainly driven by ROR in most vegetation types, except for tillage land and forage grassland, in which the driving factor was altitude. This results indicated that natural vegetation restoration is more beneficial to SOC sequestration than managed vegetation restoration and thus for mitigating global climate change. Accordingly, future studies should take these different environmental drivers under different vegetation restoration types into consideration when modeling SOC and guiding restoration management.

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“…SOC contents in the forests were increased by 120.4 ± 10.0% relative to the cropland in the current study. Conversion of cropland to forest resulted in 46–69% increase in SOC content in the 0–20 cm depth in China1921, while led to 29–53% increase over the world426 according to meta-analyses. A literature survey revealed that most studies encountered 35–100% increase in SOC contents following reforestation or afforestation of cropland27.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These facts indicate that SOC content increase in the current study is at the high end of the literature reported range. Shi and Han19 reported that the mean rate of SOC accumulation was 1.54 Mg C ha −1 yr −1 for natural succession from cropland over China, while the mean rates ranged from 0.57 to 0.97 Mg C ha −1 yr −1 for afforestation of cropland in south China and southwest China; and the rates of relative content change varied from 1.2 to 10.7% yr −1 for natural succession across China. It seems that the rates of SOC accumulation in the current study were within the reported range of China.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These ecological restoration programs have been proposed to substantially enhance SOC accumulation719202122. For example, according to a recent meta-analysis, cumulative soil C sequestration due to GGP was 156 ± 108 Tg C (95% CI hereafter) over the period of 1999 to 2012 with a mean accumulation rate of 12 ± 8 Tg C yr −1 , and will increase to 383 ± 108 Tg C by 205019. However, these estimates may be rough since the regional distribution of measurements is unbalanced with, for example, very limited measurements conducted in the vast calcareous karst region of southwest China.…”

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Soil organic carbon accumulation during post-agricultural succession in a karst area, southwest China

Yang

Luo

Wen

et al. 2016

Sci Rep

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This study was aimed to investigate the direction and magnitude of soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics and the underlying mechanisms following agricultural abandonment in a subtropical karst area, southwest China. Two post-agriculture succession sequences including grassland (~10 years), shrubland (~29 years), secondary forest (~59 years) and primary forest with cropland as reference were selected. SOC and other soil physicochemical variables in the soil depth of 0–15 cm (representing the average soil depth of the slope in the studied area) were measured. SOC content in the grassland was not significantly elevated relative to the cropland (42.0 ± 7.3 Mg C ha−1). SOC content in the shrubland reached the level of the primary forest. On average, SOC content for the forest was 92.6 ± 4.2 Mg C ha−1, representing an increase of 120.4 ± 10.0% or 50.6 ± 4.2 Mg ha−1 relative to the cropland. Following agricultural abandonment, SOC recovered to the primary forest level in about 40 years with a rate of 1.38 Mg C ha−1 yr−1. Exchangeable Ca and Mg were found to be the strongest predictors of SOC dynamics. Our results suggest that SOC content may recover rapidly following agricultural abandonment in the karst region of southwest China.

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Estimating the soil carbon sequestration potential of China's Grain for Green Project

Cited by 46 publications

References 53 publications

Soil Organic Carbon Accumulation in Abandoned Croplands on the Loess Plateau

Soil Organic Carbon Accumulation in Abandoned Croplands on the Loess Plateau

Effects of environmental factors on soil organic carbon under natural or managed vegetation restoration

Soil organic carbon accumulation during post-agricultural succession in a karst area, southwest China

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