Elsevier

CATENA

Volume 133, October 2015, Pages 455-460
CATENA

Changes in soil carbon and nitrogen stocks followed the conversion from secondary forest to Chinese fir and Moso bamboo plantations

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2015.03.002Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Soil was sampled in a secondary forest, converted Chinese fir and Moso bamboo plantation.

  • Total soil organic carbon (SOC) and nitrogen (N) content decreased with soil depth.

  • Forest conversion significantly decreased SOC and N concentrations.

  • Forest conversion significantly decreased SOC and N stocks over 0–50 cm.

Abstract

Land use change is the second main reason for carbon (C) emissions after fossil fuel combustion, and it is recognized as an important driving force for soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil nitrogen (N) dynamics. Conversion of the secondary forest to Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata [Lamb.] Hook) and Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys heterocycla [Carr] Mitford cv. Pubescens) plantations represents one of the most important land use changes in subtropical China. However, the effects of these land use changes on the SOC and N stocks were not well documented. Therefore, in this study soil samples were collected in a secondary forest, a 17-year Chinese fir and a 18-year Moso bamboo plantation after the conversion from the secondary forest in November 2013, and total SOC and N concentrations were measured. Total SOC and N concentrations decreased with soil depth over the 0–50 cm in three land uses, and they were significantly higher in the secondary forest than those of Chinese fir and Moso bamboo plantations; however, these concentrations were not significantly different between Chinese fir and Moso bamboo plantations. Top soil (0–10 cm) stored one third of total SOC and N stocks. SOC and N stocks in the secondary forest were significantly higher than those of Chinese fir and Moso bamboo plantations with values of 203.68, 127.34 and 118.25 t·ha 1 for SOC stock and 9.24, 5.10 and 6.35 t·ha 1 for N stock. The results indicated that converting the secondary forest to Chinese fir and Moso bamboo plantations significantly decreased the SOC and N stocks over 0–50 cm.

Introduction

The carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycles in the terrestrial ecosystems have gained an increasing attention over past decades because their oxides have great impacts on climate change (Fu et al., 2010). Soil contains the largest C pools with the amount of 3150 Pg C (1 Pg C = 1015 g C), which is more than four times of that in plants (650 Pg C) and atmosphere (750 Pg C) (Luo and Zhou, 2006). In 2008, C emissions from soil respiration are estimated to be 98 Pg C (Bond-Lamberty and Thomson, 2010), which is more than 10 times of that from fossil fuel combustion (IPCC, 2007). Therefore, small changes in soil C could directly and significantly affect atmospheric CO2 concentrations.

Land use change is the second main reason for C emissions after fossil fuel combustion and has significant impacts on soil organic carbon (SOC) and N dynamics (Fu et al., 2010, Lozano-García and Parras-Alcántara, 2013, Watson et al., 2000). China, the largest developing country, has experienced wide land use changes from natural forests to plantations, forests to croplands or intensive land uses due to fast growing of human population and changing lifestyles in the past several decades (Fu et al., 2010). The land use change has caused a dramatic decline of SOC stock. According to the second national soil inventory in China, SOC stock in first one meter depth decreased by 7 Pg C due to the cultivation of natural soil, which represents 9.5% of world's SOC decline caused by land use change (Wu et al., 2003). However, the large C pool and significant changes of SOC related land use change also suggest a considerable potential to increase soil C pool through the management of human activities and forest management to decrease atmospheric CO2 concentrations (Post and Kwon, 2000, Wu et al., 2003). For example, restoring agro-pastoral ecotone to shrub land increases SOC concentration by 122–163% in topsoil (0–10 cm) (Fu et al., 2010).

In many areas in southern China, to meet the increasing demand of the timber market, fuel material and other forest products, larger areas of native forests have been converted to pure plantations followed by prescribed burning (Yang et al., 2009). One of the most important examples is the establishment of Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata [Lamb.] Hook) and Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys heterocycla [Carr.] Mitford cv. Pubescens) plantations. Chinese fir is one of the most popular plantation timber species in China due to its good timber quality, fast growth, straight stem and high resistance of bending (Zhao et al., 2009). Chinese fir plantations are commonly harvested at age 25 years (Zhang et al., 2004). Moso bamboo forest is an important forest type in southern China and has expanded very rapidly in recent decades because of fast and high income (Zhou et al., 2006). Moso bamboo is a fast growing species with fast biomass accumulation (Zhou et al., 2011) that it is normally harvested 4 or 5 years with wide uses, such as process bamboo flooring, scaffolding, supporting pillars, wall-decoration and laminated beams (Liu et al., 2011). According to the 7th national forest inventory, Chinese fir plantations cover an area of 8.54 million ha, equaling 21% of total China's plantation area, meanwhile bamboo forests have an area of 5.38 million ha, 70% of which was Moso bamboo (Jia et al., 2009).

In the past 20 years, intensive studies have been conducted to estimate the contribution of land use change on C and N cycles at both the regional (Wu et al., 2003) and global scales (Guo and Gifford, 2002, Nilsson and Schopfhauser, 1995). Many of these studies focus on the conversion of native forests to agricultural systems (Gelaw et al., 2014, Lozano-García and Parras-Alcántara, 2013, Twongyirwe et al., 2013) or pastures (Fang et al., 2012, Matos et al., 2010). However, studies on the SOC and N stocks after the conversion of the secondary forest to the Chinese fir and Moso bamboo plantations are still rare, although few observed studies have reported soil fertility (Wang et al., 2011), soil labile organic C fractions and aggregate stability after the conversion of native forest to Chinese fir plantations (Yang et al., 2009), and soil respiration after the conversion of the Chinese fir plantations to Moso bamboo plantations (Song et al., 2013). Besides, some studies have also focused on the SOC and N stocks after the conversion of native forest to other plantations, such as rubber plantations (de Blecourt et al., 2013, Yang et al., 2004), Prince Rupprecht's larch and Chinese pine plantations (Wang et al., 2012). Therefore, in this study, we concentrated on a secondary forest, a Chinese fir plantation and a Moso bamboo plantation that converted from the secondary forest to exam the effects of forest conversion on SOC and N stocks. We hypothesized that SOC and N stocks would be higher in the secondary forest compared to the Chinese fir and Moso bamboo plantations because of significant prescribed burning, site preparation in both plantations and one-sixth selective harvest of Moso bamboo plantation every year (Zhou et al., 2011).

Section snippets

Study area

The study was conducted in Shitai County (29°59′–30°24′ N, 117°12′–117°59′ E), which is located in the southern part of Anhui province, China (Fig. 1). The region is characterized by a distinctly seasonal mid-subtropical, humid, mountainous climate. The annual average temperature is 16 °C with significant seasonality (Lu, 2010). The mean annual precipitation is 1626 mm, 71% of which occurs between April and September (Geng and Wang, 2011). The average annual sunshine duration is 1704 h and the

SOC and N concentrations across soil depths and land use systems

The soil bulk density showed an increasing trend with the soil depth among the three land uses (Table 2). The soil bulk density was lowest in top 0–10 cm in the secondary forest, and it was significantly lower (P < 0.05) than that of Chinese fir plantation. The soil bulk density was not statistically significant difference in the sub-layers (10–50 cm) for the three land uses. In the same land use, significant difference of soil bulk density was observed among different layers (P < 0.05); meanwhile,

Discussion

The three adjacent sites had the same forest type prior to planting Chinese fir and Moso bamboo plantations in this study, and the soil developed from the same basaltic parent materials, therefore, differences in SOC and N stock were assumed to be the results of land use changes as well as the effects of the changes in tree species. It has been recognized that such pseudo-replication is the limitation of such studies (Yang et al., 2009).

Conclusions

The study was conducted in a secondary forest, a Chinese fir and a Moso bamboo plantation, which could contribute the understanding of the effects of land use changes on the SOC and N stocks. The soil bulk density increased with soil depth, while the SOC and N concentrations decreased with soil depth in the three land uses. SOC and N concentrations in the secondary forest were significantly higher than that of Chinese fir and Moso bamboo plantations for all depths, suggesting that the

Acknowledgments

This study was part of “948 project” of State Forest Administration (2013-4-70), special research fund of International Centre for Bamboo and Rattan (1632013010) supported by International Centre for Bamboo and Rattan (ICBR) and the Lin2Value project (033L049) supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung). We thank two anonymous reviewers for valuable suggestions to improve the article. We thank Director An'guo Fan, Mr. Bailing

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