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Dryad

Data from: Dryland soils in northern China sequester carbon during the early-2000s warming hiatus period

Cite this dataset

Kou, Dan et al. (2018). Data from: Dryland soils in northern China sequester carbon during the early-2000s warming hiatus period [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.v2j62h1

Abstract

1. Drylands, covering ~45% of the Earth’s terrestrial surface and supporting ~38% of the global population, play a dominant role in the trend and inter-annual variability of global land carbon (C) sink. Given that a large proportion of organic C is stored in soils, our knowledge on soil C dynamics in drylands is crucial to evaluate terrestrial C-climate feedback. However, credible understanding on this issue is still greatly limited by the lack of direct observations. 2. Here, based on a regional resampling of historical sites collected during 2002-2004, we explored the soil organic C changes in various layers over the past decade across the arid/semi-arid grasslands on the Inner Mongolian Plateau. 3. Our results revealed that the soil organic C density (SOCD) in this typical dryland increased significantly over the monitoring period, with a mean increase of 50.6 g C m-2 yr-1 or 0.8% yr-1 in the top 50 cm depth. Moreover, soil C dynamics exhibited contrasting spatial patterns between different layers: the rate of C accumulation in surface soils (0-10 cm) decreased, whereas that in deep soils (30-50 cm) exhibited an increasing trend along the aridity gradient. 4. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that dryland soils function as an important C sink, with the drier region tending to sequester C in deeper soils due to the greater root biomass allocation.

Usage notes

Location

China