Modeling the effects of the Sloping Land Conversion Program on terrestrial ecosystem carbon dynamics in the Loess Plateau: A case study with Ansai County, Shaanxi province, China

Decheng Zhou, Shuqing Zhao, Shuguang Liu and Liangxia Zhang

Ecological Modelling, 2014, vol. 288, issue C, 47-54

Abstract: The Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP), preferentially initiated to reduce water loss and soil erosion in the Loess Plateau of China in 1999, is the largest eco-restoration project in the world in recent decades. This massive effort improved the vegetation conditions markedly and was expected to have a great potential to enhance terrestrial carbon (C) sequestration. However, the spatially-explicit C consequences of the SLCP remain largely unknown at the regional scale. Using Ansai County in the Loess Plateau as a case study, we assessed the impacts of the SLCP on ecosystem C dynamics based on the General Ensemble Biogeochemical Modeling System (GEMS). The results showed that ecosystem C stock (including C stored in biomass and soil) decreased slightly in the first five years after the implementation of the SLCP (i.e., 1999–2003) due to the low production of the newly forested land, and increased evidently (mostly in biomass) thereafter thanks primarily to the growth of young plantations. Overall, the study area functioned as a net C sink in the past three decades, yet the magnitude was greatly amplified by the SLCP, indicated by a C sink in 2004–2010 nearly twelve times that in 1978–1998 (41.5 vs. 3.5gCm−2yr−1). These results highlight the importance of the SLCP in promoting terrestrial C sequestration which may help mitigate climate change. Nevertheless, there were time-lags between the impact of the SLCP and the associated C dynamics in the eco-restored areas, particularly in the soil, calling for future efforts toward addressing long-term C consequences of the SLCP.

Keywords: Ecological restoration; Land use/cover change (LUCC); Carbon stocks; Carbon sequestration; General Ensemble Biogeochemical Modeling System (GEMS) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304380014002658
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:288:y:2014:i:c:p:47-54

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2014.05.016

Access Statistics for this article

Ecological Modelling is currently edited by Brian D. Fath

More articles in Ecological Modelling from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().