Estimate of total CO2 output from desertified sandy land in China

Abstract Soil is an important factor in regional and global carbon budgets because it serves as a reservoir of large amount of organic carbon. In our study, using remote sensing data of different periods we analyzed the development and reversion of desertification in China, calculated the variations of organic carbon contents of the desertified lands in China. The results showed that the total storage of organic carbon in 0–50 cm soil layer of the desertified lands is 855 Mt. In recent 40 yr, the total CO 2 amount released by land desertification processes to the atmosphere was 150 Mt, while the CO 2 amount sequestered by desertification reversing processes corresponded to 59 Mt C. Hence, the net CO 2 amount released from desertified lands of China corresponded to 91 Mt C, about 68.42% of the 133 Mt C of annual CO 2 release in the global temperate and frigid zones. Simultaneously, it indicated that CO 2 amount sequestered by desertification reversing processes in desertified land had greater potential than the other soils.

[1]  H. Gholz,et al.  A simulation model of the role of belowground dynamics in a Florida pine plantation , 1991 .

[2]  R. K. Dixon,et al.  Carbon Pools and Flux of Global Forest Ecosystems , 1994, Science.

[3]  H. William Hunt,et al.  A Simulation Model for Decomposition in Grasslands , 1977 .

[4]  B. Bolin,et al.  Changes of land biota and their importance for the carbon cycle. , 1977, Science.

[5]  I. Fung,et al.  The sensitivity of terrestrial carbon storage to climate change , 1990, Nature.

[6]  R. Leemans,et al.  The role of forest soils in the global carbon cycle. , 1995 .

[7]  J. R. Trabalka,et al.  The Changing Carbon Cycle: A Global Analysis , 1986 .

[8]  J. Kelly,et al.  Carbon forms and functions in forest soils. , 1995 .

[9]  William H. Schlesinger,et al.  Changes in Soil Carbon Storage and Associated Properties with Disturbance and Recovery , 1986 .

[10]  P. Sollins,et al.  Processes of Soil Organic‐Matter Accretion at a Mudfloe Chronosequence, Mt. Shasta, California , 1983 .

[11]  J. Liski,et al.  Carbon storage in forest soil of Finland. 1. Effect of thermoclimate , 1997 .

[12]  P. Polglase,et al.  Carbon balance in the tundra, boreal forest and humid tropical forest during climate change: scaling up from leaf physiology and soil carbon dynamics , 1995 .

[13]  Wilfred M. Post,et al.  Soil carbon pools and world life zones , 1982, Nature.

[14]  T. Wang.  LAND USE AND SANDY DESERTIFICATION IN NORTH CHINA , 2000 .

[15]  H. Laudelout,et al.  Contribution of root respiration to total CO2 efflux from the soil of a deciduous forest , 1996 .

[16]  J. Aber,et al.  Responses of Trace Gas Fluxes and N Availability to Experimentally Elevated Soil Temperatures , 1994 .

[17]  L. Mann,et al.  CHANGES IN SOIL CARBON STORAGE AFTER CULTIVATION , 1986 .

[18]  J. Skopp,et al.  Day and night soil respiration from a grassland , 1991 .

[19]  M. Kononova.  Soil Organic Matter , 1963 .

[20]  David S. Schimel,et al.  Texture, climate, and cultivation effects on soil organic matter content in U.S. grassland soils , 1989 .

[21]  M. Fiorella,et al.  Regional Soil organic carbon storage estimates for western Oregon by multiple approaches , 1998 .

[22]  R. Dalal,et al.  Long-term trends in fertility of soils under continuous cultivation and cereal cropping in southern queensland. ii* Total organic carbon and its rate of loss from the soil profile , 1986 .

[23]  H. Bohn.  Estimate of Organic Carbon in World Soils: II1 , 1976 .

[24]  George M. Woodwell,et al.  The role of terrestrial vegetation in the global carbon cycle : measurement by remote sensing , 1985 .

[25]  Hari Eswaran,et al.  Organic Carbon in Soils of the World , 1993 .