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 from 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 cm with large variation. The current SOC storage could be estimated using the initial SOC stock and year since land use transformation (Adjusted R2 = 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). The ongoing ‘Grain‐for‐Green’ project might make significant contribution to China's carbon sequestration. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.