CHANGE IN SOIL ORGANIC CARBON FOLLOWING THE 'GRAIN-FOR-GREEN' PROGRAMME IN CHINA

Agricultural soils are considered to have great potential for carbon sequestration through land-use change. In this paper, we compiled data from the literatures and studied the change in soil organic carbon (SOC) following the 'Grain-for-Green' Programme (GGP, i.e., conversion front farmland to plantation, secondary forests and grasslands) in China. The results showed that SOC stocks accumulated at an average rate of 36.67 g m(-2) y(-1) in the top 20 cut with large variation. The Current SOC storage Could be estimated using the initial SOC stock and year since land use transformation (Adjusted R-2 = 0.805, p = 0.000). After land use change, SOC stocks decreased during the initial 4-5 years, followed by an increase after above ground vegetation restoration. Annual average precipitation and initial SOC stocks had a significant effect (p < 0.05) on the rate of change in SOC, while no significant effects were observed between plantation and natural regeneration (p > 0.05). The ongoing 'Grain-for-Green' project might make significant contribution to China's carbon sequestration. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.