Changes in soil carbon stock after cropland conversion to grassland in Russian temperate zone: measurements versus model simulation
2014
Heikkinen, Jaakko | Kurganova, Irina | Lopes de Gerenyu, Valentin | Palosuo, Taru | Regina, Kristiina
The collapse of Soviet Union in early 1990s led to abandonment of large area of arable land which is assumed to act as a carbon (C) sink. We studied the ability of two dynamic soil C models (Yasso07 and RothC) to predict changes in soil C content after cropland abandonment. The performance of the models was compared using the results of a long-term experiment in Pushchino, Moscow region (54°50′N, 37°35′E) in Russia. The experiment was divided in four combinations of fertilizer or mowing treatments on former cropland soil. The soil C content was determined in the year of establishment (1980) and thereafter in 1999 and 2004. The soil C stocks increased by about 1.5- to 1.8-fold during the study period. Both models predicted the overall change in soil C relatively well (modelling efficiency of Yasso07 and RothC were 0.60 and 0.73, respectively). According to the models, the soil gained on average 140–150 g C m⁻² year⁻¹during the first 5 years after conversion of cropland to grassland. The C sequestration rate decreased to 40–50 g C m⁻² year⁻¹after 20 years of land use change. The sequestration rates estimated in this study are comparable to the rates observed in other studies.
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