Desertification effects on C and N content of sandy soils under grassland in Horqin, northern China

Improvements in Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Capacities after Shrub Planting to Stabilize Sand Dunes in China’s Horqin Sandy Land

“…In the present study, the 31-year-old plantation established in areas with active dunes was closest to the ages in the two previous studies, and showed an increase of 360 kg·C·ha −1 ·yr −1 in SOC storage. The existing areas of non-desertified grassland in the Horqin Sandy Land have 48,779 kg·C·ha −1 of SOC storage to a depth of 100 cm [18]. Based on an average SOC storage of 6688 kg C ha −1 in active dunes (the average of the values measured in the two previous studies and in the present study) and the abovementioned rate of SOC increase, it would take 74 years to fully restore the SOC storage of the active dunes through grazing exclosures, versus 117 years through afforestation using the shrub species C. microphylla and 205 years through afforestation using Mongolian pine.…”

“…The landscape became dominated by active dunes (Figure 1a) by the late 1970s, and local people live in poverty due to the severe environmental degradation in the region. Zhou et al [18] estimated that the total C and N losses from the plant-soil system of the Horqin Sandy Land, which covers 30,152.7 km 2 , amounted to 107.53 and 9.97 Mt, respectively, compared with the original grassland values due to the desertification that occurred in the last century. A range of restoration practices have been widely implemented to control the desertification, including the establishment of straw checkerboards to protect exposed soil against wind, the establishment of grazing exclosures to protect surviving vegetation against livestock, and afforestation using indigenous and introduced tree and shrub species.…”

Effects of different grassland restoration approaches on soil properties in the southeastern Horqin sandy land, northern China

“…In recent years, the primary causes of desertification (primarily overgrazing) and restoration approaches (including degraded farmland to grassland and fenced enclosures) have been studied (Li et al, 2000(Li et al, , 2009Su et al, 2004). In addition, the effectiveness of soil and vegetation restoration at combating desertification have been evaluated (Su and Zhao, 2003;Zhang et al, 2005;Zhao et al, 2007;Zhou et al, 2008). However, limited quantitative research has been carried out on the impacts on soil properties of artificial sparsely wooded grassland and fencing desertified sandy grassland.…”

How did climate drying reduce ecosystem carbon storage in the forest–steppe ecotone? A case study in Inner Mongolia, China

“…Therefore, soil texture can be used as an indicator of SOC given the absence of historical SOC data. Wind erosion can reduce clay and silt, leading to coarse soil texture (Hennessy et al 1986), and reductions in organic matter and nutrient content (Zhou et al 2008;Zhao et al 2006). Coarse sand in sediment sequences derives mainly from wind-driven sedimentation with a higher percentage of coarse sand, indicating stronger wind erosion (Liu et al 2002) as well as a coarser soil texture in the study area.…”