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Accumulation of soil organic carbon during natural restoration of desertified grassland in China’s Horqin Sandy Land

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Abstract

China’s Horqin Sandy Land, a formerly lush grassland, has experienced extensive desertification that caused considerable carbon (C) losses from the plant-soil system. Natural restoration through grazing exclusion is a widely suggested option to sequester C and to restore degraded land. In a desertified grassland, we investigated the C accumulation in the total and light fractions of the soil organic matter from 2005 to 2013 during natural restoration. To a depth of 20 cm, the light fraction organic carbon (LFOC) storage increased by 221 g C/m2 (84%) and the total soil organic carbon (SOC) storage increased by 435 g C/m2 (55%). The light fraction dry matter content represented a small proportion of the total soil mass (ranging from 0.74% in 2005 to 1.39% in 2013), but the proportion of total SOC storage accounted for by LFOC was remarkable (ranging from 33% to 40%). The C sequestration averaged 28 g C/(m2·a) for LFOC and 54 g C/(m2·a) for total SOC. The total SOC was strongly and significantly positively linearly related to the light fraction dry matter content and the proportions of fine sand and silt+clay. The light fraction organic matter played a major role in total SOC sequestration. Our results suggest that grazing exclusion can restore desertified grassland and has a high potential for sequestering SOC in the semiarid Horqin Sandy Land.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    YuQiang Li, XueYong Zhao, ShaoKun Wang, HaLin Zhao, TongHui Zhang & YuLin Li

  2. School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou, 730070, China

    FengXia Zhang

  3. School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, 68583, USA

    Tala Awada

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  1. YuQiang Li
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Li, Y., Zhao, X., Zhang, F. et al. Accumulation of soil organic carbon during natural restoration of desertified grassland in China’s Horqin Sandy Land. J. Arid Land 7, 328–340 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40333-014-0045-1

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