Pedogenic knowledge-aided modelling of soil inorganic carbon stocks in an alpine environment

Abstract

Accurate estimation of soil carbon is essential for accounting carbon cycling on the background of global environment change. However, previous studies made little contribution to the patterns and stocks of soil inorganic carbon (SIC) in large scales. In this study, we defined the structure of the soil depth function to fit vertical distribution of SIC based on pedogenic knowledge across various landscapes. Soil depth functions were constructed from a dataset of 99 soil profiles in the alpine area of the northeastern Tibetan Plateau. The parameters of depth functions were mapped from environmental covariates using random forest. Finally, SIC stocks at three depth intervals in the upper 1m depth were mapped across the entire study area by applying predicted soil depth functions at each location. The results showed that the soil depth functions were able to improve accuracy for fitting the vertical distribution of the SIC content, with a mean determination coefficient of R2=0.93. Overall accuracy for predicted SIC stocks was assessed on training samples. High Lin's concordance correlation coefficient values (0.84–0.86) indicate that predicted and observed values were in good agreement (RMSE: 1.52–1.67kgm−2 and ME: −0.33 to −0.29kgm−2). Variable importance showed that geographic position predictors (longitude, latitude) were key factors predicting the distribution of SIC. Terrain covariates were important variables influencing the three-dimensional distribution of SIC in mountain areas. By applying the proposed approach, the total SIC stock in this area is estimated at 75.41Tg in the upper 30cm, 113.15Tg in the upper 50cm and 190.30Tg in the upper 1m. We concluded that the methodology would be applicable for further prediction of SIC stocks in the Tibetan Plateau or other similar areas.