Impacts of Climate and Land Cover on Soil Organic Carbon in the Eastern Qilian Mountains, China

Junju Zhou, Dongxiang Xue, Li Lei, Lanying Wang, Guoshuang Zhong, Chunfang Liu, Juan Xiang, Meihua Huang, Wei Feng, Qiaoqiao Li, Yaru Zhao and Guofeng Zhu
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Junju Zhou: College of Geography and Environment Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China
Dongxiang Xue: College of Geography and Environment Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China
Li Lei: Management Bureau of Shiyang River Basin, Water Resources Bureau of Gansu Province, Wuwei 733000, China
Lanying Wang: The Administrative center for China’s Agenda 21, Beijing 1000381, China
Guoshuang Zhong: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco–Environmental Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Chunfang Liu: College of Geography and Environment Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China
Juan Xiang: College of Geography and Environment Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China
Meihua Huang: College of Geography and Environment Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China
Wei Feng: College of Geography and Environment Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China
Qiaoqiao Li: College of Geography and Environment Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China
Yaru Zhao: College of Geography and Environment Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China
Guofeng Zhu: College of Geography and Environment Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 20, 1-15

Abstract: Soil, as the largest organic carbon pool of terrestrial ecosystem, plays a significant role in regulating the global carbon cycle, atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) levels, and global climate change. It is of great significance to scientifically understand the change rule and influence mechanism of soil organic carbon (SOC) to further understand the "source–sink" transformation of SOC and its influence on climate change. In this paper, the spatiotemporal distribution characteristics and influencing mechanism of SOC were analyzed by means of field investigation and laboratory analysis and the measured data in the Eastern Qilian Mountains. The results showed that the average SOC content of 0–50 cm was 35.74 ± 4.15 g/kg and the range of coefficients of variation (CV) between 48.84% and 75.84%, which suggested that the SOC content exhibited moderate heterogeneity at each soil layer of the Eastern Qilian Mountains. In four land cover types, the SOC content of forestland was the highest, followed by alpine meadow, grassland, and wilderness, which presented surface enrichment, and there was a decreasing trend with the soil depth. From the perspective of seasonal dynamics, there was a uniform pattern of SOC content in different land cover types, shown to be the highest in winter, followed by autumn, spring, and summer, and with the biggest difference between winter and summer appearing in the surface layer. At the same time, our study suggested that the SOC content of different land cover types was closely related to aboveground biomass and negatively related to both the mean monthly temperature and the mean monthly precipitation. Therefore, the distribution and variation of SOC was the result of a combination of climate, vegetation, and other factors.

Keywords: soil organic carbon; land cover types; climate change; the Qilian Mountains (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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