Soil Organic Carbon Content and Its Relationship with the Stand Age in Tea Plantations ( Camellia sinensis L.) in Fujian Province, China

Miaomiao Wang, Jian Zhao (), Jinghua Chen, Xinyi Zhang and Shilei Zhu
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Miaomiao Wang: Institute of Digital Agriculture, Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Fuzhou 350003, China
Jian Zhao: Institute of Digital Agriculture, Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Fuzhou 350003, China
Jinghua Chen: Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100045, China
Xinyi Zhang: Institute of Digital Agriculture, Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Fuzhou 350003, China
Shilei Zhu: Institute of Digital Agriculture, Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Fuzhou 350003, China

Land, 2024, vol. 13, issue 6, 1-12

Abstract: Optimizing soil carbon content is essential for mitigating climate change. Understanding the soil organic carbon (SOC) contents and their relationship with plantation age is important for enhancing SOC in tea plantations. However, there is still a lack of studies in quantifying the SOC–age curve of the whole life cycle in tea plantations. Thus, in this study, we collected 140 soil samples aged 3 to 60 years in the four representative regions (Anxi, Datian, Qingliu, and Fuzhou) in Fujian Province to quantify the SOC contents and their relationship with plantation age. We found that the average SOC was 14.6 ± 6.1 g/kg in the four sampling regions. Nitrogen (N) emerged as having a highly significant positive correlation with SOC (R 2 = 0.9). We also found a significant negative correlation between SOC and mean annual temperature (MAT) (R 2 = 0.6), and a significant positive correlation with mean annual precipitation (MAP) (R 2 = 0.6). The SOC increased with plantation age at 3–20 years old and peaked at 16–20 years old. After 35 years, the SOC decreased gradually with the aging of the plantation. The results indicated that tea plantations could be renewed after the age of 35. These results showed that optimizing age structure is important in enhancing SOC in tea plantations and is meaningful in achieving carbon neutrality.

Keywords: soil organic carbon content (SOC); tea plantations; plantation age; carbon cycle (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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