Response of soil organic carbon sequestration to the "Grain for Green Project" in the hilly Loess Plateau region

Abstract

Land use change is one of the major factors affecting soil organic carbon (SOC) and global carbon balance. The Grain for Green Project, implemented in the hilly Loess Plateau region, has remarkably changed the land use types in this region. However, it is not clear how this has affected SOC sequestration. Our objectives were (玉) to determine the temporal and spatial response of SOC sequestration to the land use changes, (域) to understand the critical factors impacting the SOC sequestration. The research was conducted on the central of the hilly Loess Plateau region, which covered an area of 707km 2. Soil samples were taken in five catchments with different revegetation types and revegetation chronosequence. The results showed that at the regional scale, natural grasslands, planted shrub lands, planted wood lands and naturally revegetated grasslands showed remarkable SOC sequestration compared with slope croplands. However, no