The impact of agricultural land use changes on soil organic carbon dynamics in the Danjiangkou Reservoir area of China

Topography and land use effects on spatial variability of soil denitrification and related soil properties in riparian wetlands

“…1). A recent study indicated that vegetation restoration could increase the soil carbon stocks as a result of a combination of large carbon input from belowground An asterisk indicates a significant difference at P < 0.05. and low carbon losses due to decreasing soil carbon decomposition (Cheng et al, 2013). Agricultural riparian soils in the Yangtze River basin generally had a high nitrogen concentration because of excess nitrogen fertilizer application to adjacent farmlands and drainage systems that rapidly deliver nitrogen to riparian areas (Zhu et al, 2006).…”

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

“…It has been suggested afforestation can impact the soil organic C and N dynamics by altering SOM input and decomposition rate Deng et al, 2014;Fang et al, 2015). However, our understanding of soil organic C and N dynamics is still limited, particularly the different turnover of SOM fractions in response to afforestation (Marin-Spiotta et al, 2009;Huang et al, 2011;Cheng et al, 2013).…”

“…The SOM physical fractionation technique together with natural variation in stable C and N isotopic composition, have been considered to be an effective approach for quantifying SOM dynamics following land use change (Del Galdo et al, 2003;Cheng et al, 2013;Crow et al, 2014;Wang et al, 2014). Insights into SOM dynamics are obtained using size and density fractionation techniques to separate bulk soil into fractions that differ in microbial degradability and turnover time (e.g., Del Galdo et al, 2003;Marin-Spiotta et al, 2009).…”

“…Van Kessel et al, 2000;Throop et al, 2013). 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).…”

Response of soil properties and C dynamics to land-use change in the west of Loess Plateau

“…However, many studies have reported contradictory findings. Afforestation resulted in a decrease (Guo et al 2008;Poeplau et al 2011;Poeplau and Don 2013), an increase (Neff et al 2009;Cheng et al 2013) or no change in SOC stocks (Poeplau and Don 2013). The reported SOC changes following land-use conversion vary widely among different sites, which is attributed to various environmental conditions such as soil type, climate, ecosystem productivity, plant species and intensity of management (Poeplau et al 2011).…”