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Perturbation of soil organic carbon induced by land-use change from primary forest

Authors :
Zhiyuan Zhang
Chengwen Lu
Jingyao Chen
Sheng Li
Xuhui Zheng
Liming Zhang
Huanyuan Zhang-Zheng
Source :
Environmental Research Letters, Vol 19, Iss 12, p 124014 (2024)
Publication Year :
2024
Publisher :
IOP Publishing, 2024.

Abstract

The impact of land-use change (LUC) on soil organic carbon (SOC) has been a wide concern of land management policymakers because CO _2 emissions induced by LUC have been the second largest carbon source worldwide. However, due to insufficient data quality and limited biome coverage, a global big picture of the impact of LUC on SOC is still not clear. This study conducted a meta-analysis on 288 independent observations sourced from 62 peer-reviewed papers to provide a global summary of the change in SOC after the conversion of primary forests into other land-use types. The conversion of primary forest to cropland resulted in the most severe SOC loss (−33.2%), followed by conversion into plantation forests (−22.3%) and secondary forests (−19.1%). Nonetheless, SOC increased by 9.1% after a conversion from primary forests into pasture. More SOC loss was found at sites with lower precipitation for primary forests converted to cropland and plantation forests. The SOC loss decreased consistently with increasing mean annual temperature (MAT) for all four types of LUC. Moreover, the loss of SOC tended to worsen over time when primary forests are converted to cropland or plantation forests. In contrast, SOC loss recovered over time following conversion to secondary forests. The gain of SOC gradually increased over time after conversion to pastures. To conclude, the changes in SOC are related not only to the land-use type but also to precipitation, temperature and turn years after LUC. Due to limited data, this study focuses on soil profiles within 30 cm depth, and future research should explore SOC dynamics induced by LUC at greater depths. Overall, cases of SOC loss of approximately 30% following deforestation were very common (except for conversion to pasture), and the results of this study show that the loss of SOC following LUC should be carefully considered and monitored in land management.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
17489326
Volume :
19
Issue :
12
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Environmental Research Letters
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.6e4ef20b03f480ab0a8415c3ea08ee2
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad8668