Reforestation of Pinus massoniana alters soil organic carbon and nitrogen dynamics in eroded soil in south China

Soil organic carbon sequestration potential of artificial and natural vegetation in the hilly regions of Loess Plateau

“…Soil organic carbon (SOC) is a major component of the terrestrial carbon (C) pool that contains twice as much C as the atmosphere (Schlesinger, 1997;Post, 2000), and changes in the SOC pool can have a considerable effect on the atmospheric CO 2 concentration (Marin-Spiotta et al, 2009;Dou et al, 2013). Vegetation restoration from cropland into woodland, shrubland, and grassland has been recognized as an effective strategy for SOC stock and distribution (Bárcena et al, 2014;Deng et al, 2014;Zhu et al, 2014;Wang et al, 2014).…”

Shifts in soil organic carbon and nitrogen dynamics for afforestation in central China

“…Land use change such as afforestation involves a shift in plant species, and therefore, new C input and soil C cycling can be quantified using ␦ 13 C abundance after shift in the ␦ 13 C of plant input following change in ␦ 13 C of SOM (Van Kessel et al, 2000;Hobbie et al, 2004;Cheng et al, 2013). Simultaneously, the soil ␦ 15 N can be applied in the studies of N-cycling processes that are affected by afforestation (Marin-Spiotta et al, 2009;Dou et al, 2013;Deng et al, 2014). For instance, afforestation has been suggested to decrease both inorganic N concentrations and net N mineralization, resulting in lower ␦ 15 N values of the afforested soil (Deng et al, 2014;Li et al, 2014).…”

Soil Organic Carbon Stocks in Deep Soils at a Watershed Scale on the Chinese Loess Plateau

“…These processes are influenced by climatic factors (e.g., precipitation and temperature), soil properties (e.g., texture and structure), topography (e.g., altitude and slope aspect), land use (e.g., cropland, grassland, and shrubland), plant characteristics (e.g., vegetation coverage, age, and root system), and related ecological (e.g., organic-debris supplementation), biological (e.g., decomposition), and hydrological (e.g., erosion) processes (Booker et al, 2013;Dou et al, 2013;Liu et al, 2011;Nepstad et al, 1994;Wang et al, 2014a;Wiesmeier et al, 2012). Of these factors, land use is perhaps the most readily controlled by humans (Chen et al, 2007a;Dilling and Failey, 2013;Lu et al, 2012).…”