Distribution characteristics of soil organic carbon of alpine meadow in the Eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Abstract

A study on the distribution characteristics of soil organic carbon (SOC) in the alpine meadow in the Eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has been carried out. The results indicate that the content of soil organic carbon (CSOC) in the topsoil of terrace meadow (TM) ((67.16 ± 1.02) g·kg−1) is more than that in the soil of upland meadow (UM) ((63.42 ± 0.65) g·kg−1), while the CSOC in upland shrubland (US) ((67.49 ± 0.83) g·kg−1) is the most abundant in the scoreh stage (September). From May to September, the CSOC in the topsoil of UM and US tends to descend, but that of TM tends to ascend. As for the distribution of the CSOC and the density of SOC in the soil in the three sample areas, the data show that the deeper the soil, the lesser the content and density of SOC. The CSOC in US is higher than that in TM and UM; the CSOC in UM is the lowest at 0–10 cm soil depth. The density of SOC in US is always the lowest among UM, TM, and US at 0–40 cm depth, which shows that the storage of carbon in UM is more than that in US in the same range; the carbon pool capacity in UM is higher than that in US in the same range.