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Stratification ratio of soil organic carbon as an indicator of carbon sequestration and soil quality in ecological restoration
Author(s) -
Xu Mingxiang,
Wang Zheng,
Zhao Yunge
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
restoration ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.214
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1526-100X
pISSN - 1061-2971
DOI - 10.1111/rec.12597
Subject(s) - carbon sequestration , soil carbon , environmental science , soil quality , restoration ecology , soil science , soil water , ecosystem , revegetation , ecology , ecological succession , carbon dioxide , biology
The stratified distribution of soil organic carbon (SOC) provides a potential means of eliminating the difference in soil background for understanding its response to ecological processes. We assessed the feasibility of SOC stratification ratio (SR) as an index to estimate the dynamics of SOC sequestration and soil quality during ecological restoration. SOC, total nitrogen, and available nitrogen contents were measured at restored sites containing three vegetation types with different stand ages and slope gradients, also at sites with three kinds of agricultural management on the hilly Loess Plateau, China. SR and SOC density (SOCD) showed a consistently significant trend of linear increase along the revegetation chronosequences. The proportion of the annual increase rates of SR to SOCD were approximately 1:15 and 1:5 for SR 1 (0–5:5–10 cm) and SR 2 (0–5:20–30 cm), indicating that SR of the shallow soil layers (0–10 cm) could estimate SOC accumulation to a depth of 30 cm. SRs significantly increased owing to the ecosystem restorations. Also, SRs could discriminate the difference in SOC sequestration and soil quality between vegetation types. SR, however, could not precisely indicate the variation of SOC sequestration and soil quality under different agricultural management. The study suggested that SR was an efficient indicator of the dynamics of SOC sequestration and soil quality, and an SR 2 (0–5:20–30 cm) >2 indicated a distinct improvement of SOC sequestration and soil quality in ecological restoration on the hilly Loess Plateau.