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Soil Organic Carbon Fractions and Stocks Respond to Restoration Measures in Degraded Lands by Water Erosion

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Abstract

Assessing the degree to which degraded soils can be recovered is essential for evaluating the effects of adopted restoration measures. The objective of this study was to determine the restoration of soil organic carbon under the impact of terracing and reforestation. A small watershed with four typical restored plots (terracing and reforestation (four different local plants)) and two reference plots (slope land with natural forest (carbon-depleted) and abandoned depositional land (carbon-enriched)) in subtropical China was studied. The results showed that soil organic carbon, dissolved organic carbon and microbial biomass carbon concentrations in the surface soil (10 cm) of restored lands were close to that in abandoned depositional land and higher than that in natural forest land. There was no significant difference in soil organic carbon content among different topographic positions of the restored lands. Furthermore, the soil organic carbon stocks in the upper 60 cm soils of restored lands, which were varied between 50.08 and 62.21 Mg C ha−1, were higher than 45.90 Mg C ha−1 in natural forest land. Our results indicated that the terracing and reforestation could greatly increase carbon sequestration and accumulation and decrease carbon loss induced by water erosion. And the combination measures can accelerate the restoration of degraded soils when compared to natural forest only. Forest species almost have no impact on the total amount of soil organic carbon during restoration processes, but can significantly influence the activity and stability of soil organic carbon. Combination measures which can provide suitable topography and continuous soil organic carbon supply could be considered in treating degraded soils caused by water erosion.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41271294, 40971170) and the ‘Hundred-talent Project’ of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, PR China

    Xiaodong Nie, Zhongwu Li, Bin Huang & Guangming Zeng

  2. Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control (Hunan University), Ministry of Education, Changsha, 410082, PR China

    Xiaodong Nie, Zhongwu Li, Bin Huang & Guangming Zeng

  3. State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, CAS and MWR, Yangling, Shaanxi Province, 712100, PR China

    Zhongwu Li & Haibing Xiao

  4. Department of Soil and Water Conservation, Yangtze River Scientific Research Institute, Wuhan, 430010, PR China

    Jinquan Huang

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  1. Xiaodong Nie
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Correspondence to Zhongwu Li.

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Nie, X., Li, Z., Huang, J. et al. Soil Organic Carbon Fractions and Stocks Respond to Restoration Measures in Degraded Lands by Water Erosion. Environmental Management 59, 816–825 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-016-0817-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-016-0817-9

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