“Grain for Green” driven land use change and carbon sequestration on the Loess Plateau, China

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 4; no. 1; p. 7039
• Main Authors: Deng, Lei, Shangguan, Zhou-ping, Sweeney, Sandra
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 13.11.2014; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 704/158/2165; 704/158/854; Agricultural land; Carbon sequestration; Climate change; Ecosystems; Environmental impact; Grasslands; Humanities and Social Sciences; Land use; multidisciplinary; Precipitation; Rainfall; Science; Soil erosion; Temperature effects; Vegetation; Loess Plateau
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/srep07039

Land-use change is widely considered to be a major factor affecting soil carbon (C) sequestration (ΔC s ). This paper studied changes to soil C stocks (C s ) following the conversion of farmland to forest, shrub and grassland across the key area for implementing China's “Grain for Green” — the Loess Plateau. The results are based on a synthesis of 44 recent publications (including 424 observations at 70 sites) which has allowed us to further refine our understanding of the mechanisms driving the increase in C s following farmland conversion. This synthesis suggests that the ΔC s potential of the Loess Plateau could reach 0.59 Tg yr −1 based on an estimated annual average ΔC s rate of 0.29 Mg ha −1 yr −1 . In the region's different rainfall zones both the main contributing factors and C s dynamics varied. Across the entire Loess Plateau, C s showed first an increasing (<5 yr) then a decreasing (6–10 yr) tendency only to increase (>10 yr) yet again. In addition, the ΔC s rates depended primarily on restoration age. This synthesis demonstrates that both the initial s C s and the average annual temperature have a significant effect on ΔC s while the effect of land-use conversion type, rainfall zone and average annual precipitation were minimal.