Change in soil organic carbon following the ‘Grain-for-Green’ programme in China

✍ Scribed by K. Zhang; H. Dang; S. Tan; X. Cheng; Q. Zhang

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 135 KB
• Volume: 21
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1085-3278
• DOI: 10.1002/ldr.954

✦ Synopsis

Agricultural soils are considered to have great potential for carbon sequestration through land-use change. In this paper, we compiled data from the literatures and studied the change in soil organic carbon (SOC) following the 'Grain-for-Green' Programme (GGP, i.e., conversion from farmland to plantation, secondary forests and grasslands) in China. The results showed that SOC stocks accumulated at an average rate of 36Á67 g m À2 y À1 in the top 20 cm with large variation. The current SOC storage could be estimated using the initial SOC stock and year since land use transformation (Adjusted R 2 ¼ 0Á805, p ¼ 0Á000). After land use change, SOC stocks decreased during the initial 4-5 years, followed by an increase after above ground vegetation restoration. Annual average precipitation and initial SOC stocks had a significant effect ( p < 0Á05) on the rate of change in SOC, while no significant effects were observed between plantation and natural regeneration ( p > 0Á05). The ongoing 'Grain-for-Green' project might make significant contribution to China's carbon sequestration.