Preservation of Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) through Ecosystems’ Soil Retention Services in China

Enming Rao, Yi Xiao (), Fei Lu, Hongbo Yang and Zhiyun Ouyang
Additional contact information
Enming Rao: School of Geography and Resource Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu 610101, China
Yi Xiao: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
Fei Lu: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
Hongbo Yang: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
Zhiyun Ouyang: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China

Land, 2023, vol. 12, issue 9, 1-12

Abstract: Soil erosion exerts a profound impact on the stocks of soil organic carbon (SOC), disrupting the carbon cycle and contributing to global warming. Through its role in mitigating soil erosion, the soil retention service of ecosystems holds the potential to stabilize and safeguard the SOC reservoir. This facet has yet to be comprehensively investigated. In this study, we quantified the preservation of SOC resulting from soil retention services in China, achieved by estimating both actual SOC erosion and potential SOC erosion using the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE). We find that (1) annually, SOC erosion in China amounted to 0.10 Pg C, primarily concentrated in croplands (47.8%), grasslands (21.2%), and barren lands (15.7%). Noteworthy hotspots emerged within the Soil and Water Conservation Divisions (SWCD) of key regions like the Tibetan Plateau (TP), the southwestern purple soil region (SW), and the karst region (KT). (2) The soil retention service curtailed the loss of a substantial 4.18 Pg C of SOC per year, predominantly attributed to forest ecosystems (66.1%). Hotspots of this preservation were clustered in the SWCD of the southern red soil region (SR), KT, and TP. These outcomes highlighted the critical role of soil retention services in preventing considerable carbon losses from terrestrial ecosystems. It significantly contributes to climate change mitigation and warrants recognition as an important nature-based solution in the pursuit of carbon neutrality. Forest ecosystems emerge as paramount in SOC preservation, which will be further improved with forest restoration. Beyond addressing soil erosion, future endeavors in soil and water conservation must equally address SOC erosion to comprehensively tackle carbon loss concerns.

Keywords: soil retention; SOC preservation; SOC erosion; ecosystem service; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/9/1718/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/9/1718/ (text/html)

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:gam:jlands:v:12:y:2023:i:9:p:1718-:d:1231910

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().