Soil organic carbon stocks in terrestrial ecosystems of China: Revised estimation on three-dimensional surfaces

Abstract

The estimation of soil organic carbon (SOC) stock in terrestrial ecosystems of China is of particular importance because it exerts a major influence on worldwide terrestrial carbon (C) storage and global climate change. Map-based estimates of SOC stocks conducted in previous studies have typically been applied on planimetric areas, which led to the underestimation of SOC stock. In the present study, SOC stock in China was estimated using a revised method on three-dimensional (3-D) surfaces, which considered the undulation of the landforms. Data were collected from the 1:4 M China Soil Map and a search work from the Second Soil Survey in China. Results indicated that the SOC stocks were 28.8 Pg C and 88.5 Pg C in soils at depths of 0-20 cm and 0-100 cm, corresponding to significant increases of 5.66% and 5.44%, respectively. Regression analysis revealed that the SOC stock accumulated with the increase of areas on 3-D surfaces. These results provide more reasonable estimates and new references about SOC stocks in terrestrial ecosystems of China. The method of estimation on 3-D surfaces has scientific meaning to promote the development of new approaches to estimate accurate SOC stocks.