Quantifying the Effects of Climate Change and Revegetation on Erosion-Induced Lateral Soil Organic Carbon Loss on the Chinese Loess Plateau

Abstract

Erosion-induced soil organic carbon (SOC) loss substantially affects the redistribution of global organic carbon. The Chinese Loess Plateau, the most severely eroded region on Earth, has experienced notable soil erosion mitigation over the last few decades, making it a hotspot for soil erosion studies. However, the overall rate of SOC loss and spatiotemporal evolution under changing environments remain unclear. In this study, we investigated SOC loss from 1982 to 2015 in the severely eroded Hetong region of the Chinese Loess Plateau by combining the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model and the localized enrichment ratio function derived from field observations and attributed the changes in SOC loss to climate- and human-induced vegetation changes. The results showed that SOC loss in the Hetong region was 64.73 t·km−2·yr−1, 16.79 times higher than the global average. Over the past 34 years, SOC loss decreased by 23.84%, with a total reduction of more than 105.64 Tg C since the change-point year. Moreover, our study found that vegetation changes dominated the changes in SOC loss in the Hetong region, contributing 89.67% of the total reduction in SOC loss in the Hetong region. This study can inform carbon accounting and sustainable catchment management in regions that have experienced large-scale ecological restoration.