Authors: Na Qiao Xingliang Xu Guangmin Cao Hua Ouyang Yakov Kuzyakov
Publish Date: 2015/06/16
Volume: 395, Issue: 1-2, Pages: 231-241
Abstract
Recent land use changes have converted the traditional winter Kobresia pastures of nomads in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau to Elymus pastures or even to cropland Detailed SOC measurements up to 30cm depth were combined with analysis of δ13C δ15N bulk density microbial C and N contents in three land use typesBulk density was decreased by conversion from Kobresia pasture to cropland but increased by conversion to Elymus pasture The loss of 1 of SOC caused by land use change leads to δ13C increase of 08 ‰ Conversion to cropland significantly decreased SOC stocks 10 and microbial biomass C but the C loss 16 was insignificant in Elymus pasture Land use changes strongly increased soil δ15N in the top 5 cmConversion to Elymus pasture did not change the C stocks but conversion to cropland decreased C stocks by 10 within 10 years Soil δ13C and δ15N data indicate acceleration of C and N cycling due to the replacement of Kobresia pasture by Elymus pasture and croplandWe thank Dr Eben Goodale for the language improvements This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China 31470560 the Knowledge Innovation Foundation Program for Outstanding Young Scholar of the Chinese Academy of Sciences KZCX2YWQN302 Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology of Chinese Academy of Sciences and the German Science Foundation priority programme 1372 “Tibetan Plateau–Formation–Climate–Ecosystems TiP” with the contracts KU 1184/1412
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