Soil Organic Carbon Stocks in Terrestrial Ecosystems of China: Revised Estimation on Three-Dimensional Surfaces

Rui Zhou, Xianzhang Pan, Hongxu Wei, Xianli Xie, Changkun Wang, Ya Liu, Yanli Li and Rongjie Shi
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Rui Zhou: State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Science, Nanjing 210008, Jiangsu, China
Xianzhang Pan: State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Science, Nanjing 210008, Jiangsu, China
Hongxu Wei: Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, Jilin, China
Xianli Xie: State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Science, Nanjing 210008, Jiangsu, China
Changkun Wang: State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Science, Nanjing 210008, Jiangsu, China
Ya Liu: State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Science, Nanjing 210008, Jiangsu, China
Yanli Li: State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Science, Nanjing 210008, Jiangsu, China
Rongjie Shi: State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Science, Nanjing 210008, Jiangsu, China

Sustainability, 2016, vol. 8, issue 10, 1-13

Abstract: The estimation of soil organic carbon (SOC) stock in terrestrial ecosystems of China is of particular importance because it exerts a major influence on worldwide terrestrial carbon (C) storage and global climate change. Map-based estimates of SOC stocks conducted in previous studies have typically been applied on planimetric areas, which led to the underestimation of SOC stock. In the present study, SOC stock in China was estimated using a revised method on three-dimensional (3-D) surfaces, which considered the undulation of the landforms. Data were collected from the 1:4 M China Soil Map and a search work from the Second Soil Survey in China. Results indicated that the SOC stocks were 28.8 Pg C and 88.5 Pg C in soils at depths of 0–20 cm and 0–100 cm, corresponding to significant increases of 5.66% and 5.44%, respectively. Regression analysis revealed that the SOC stock accumulated with the increase of areas on 3-D surfaces. These results provide more reasonable estimates and new references about SOC stocks in terrestrial ecosystems of China. The method of estimation on 3-D surfaces has scientific meaning to promote the development of new approaches to estimate accurate SOC stocks.

Keywords: soil groups; national scale; mountainous topography; undulating landforms; areas on 3-D surfaces (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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