Journal
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-ATMOSPHERES
Volume 123, Issue 14, Pages 7741-7753Publisher
AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION
DOI: 10.1029/2018JD028268
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Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [91425301]
- State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology [2017-FX-01(2)]
- Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University [IRT_15R06]
- Alashan Research Station of Cold and Arid Region Environment and Engineering Research Institution, Chinese Academy of Sciences
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The amount of soil organic carbon (SOC) reflects the ability of ecosystem to sequester carbon (C). In the desert riparian zone of Heihe River basin, northwest China, that has been the subject of an ecological water conveyance since 2000, studies on SOC under different land use types remain scarce. Yet analyzing soil organic carbon content (SOCC) and its spatial distribution in the area is a key component when studying C cycle in this desert ecosystem. We therefore investigated the vertical distribution of SOC and its influencing factors using field study, and we found significant differences among different land use types and soil depths. The average SOCC and soil organic carbon density in the 0-100 cm soil layers were 23.31 g kg(-1) and 6.08 kg m(-2), respectively. SOCC and soil organic carbon density decreased in the following order: grassland (5.73 g kg(-1)) > forestland (5.03 g kg(-1)) > shrubland (4.79 g kg(-1)) > cropland (4.28 g kg(-1)) > Gobi desert (2.10 g kg(-1)). We also found that vegetation and soil properties jointly affected SOCC in this riparian arid zone, in addition to human disturbance, as indicated by a low stratification ratio in the grassland (1.575) and cropland (1.366). When natural vegetation was transformed into cropland, SOCC decreased with the removal of plant biomass and the increase of wind erosion. Consequently, conservation agricultural practices that consider preservation of soil organic matter (e.g., no-tillage and intercropping with deep-rooted leguminous perennial plants) should be introduced in order to prevent further degradation.
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