Effects of biotic and abiotic factors on soil organic carbon in semi-arid grassland

• Fu-Ping Tian ^[1] ; Zhi-Nan Zhang ^[2] ; Xiao-Feng Chang ^[1] ; Lei Sun ^[3] ; Xue-Hong Wei ^[3] ; Gao-Lin Wu
  1. [1] Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences

     Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences

     China

     
  2. [2] Ministry of Water Resources Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Soil and Water Conservation
  3. [3] Agricultural and Animal Husbandry College of Tibet University

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• Localización: Journal of soil science and plant nutrition, ISSN-e 0718-9516, ISSN 0718-9508, Vol. 16, Nº. 4, 2016, págs. 1087-1096
• Idioma: inglés
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  • Carbon sequestration in grassland soil has been paid considerable attention in recent decades. However, the changes of soil organic carbon (SOC) still need clarification under the effect of environmental factors in semi-arid area. Here, twenty sampling sites were selected to study the effects of plant community (plant cover, biomass, litter, composition and diversity) and environmental factors (i.e. mean annual precipitation, mean annual temperature) on SOC sequestration in the semi-arid grasslands. The results showed that SOC was significant positively related to mean annual precipitation, soil water content and soil pH. The higher above- and below-ground biomass, species evenness and diversity presented the higher SOC. Specially, the species richness and proportion of gramineous species functional group significantly increased SOC. Below-ground biomass affected SOC mainly in the top 30 cm soil. Our results suggest that higher plant species richness and gramineous species proportion play a positive role in increasing the potential of soil carbon sequestration in semi-arid grassland.