Distribution and storage of soil organic carbon in China

[1] Surface soils hold the largest terrestrial organic carbon pool, although estimates of the world’s soil organic carbon storage remain controversial, largely due to spatial data gaps or insufficient data density. In this study, spatial distribution and storage of soil organic carbon in China are estimated using the published data from 34,411 soil profiles investigated during China’s second national soil survey. Results show that organic carbon density in soils varies from 0.73 to 70.79 kg C/m with the majority ranging between 4.00 and 11.00 kg C/m. Carbon density decreases from east to west. A general southward increase is obvious for western China, while carbon density decreases from north to south in eastern China. Highest values are observed in forest soils in northeast China and in subalpine soils in the southeastern part of the Tibetan Plateau. The average density of 8.01 kg C/m in China is lower than the world’s mean organic carbon density in soil ( 10.60 kg C/m), mainly due to the extended arid and semi-arid regions. Total organic carbon storage in soils in China is estimated to be 70.31 Pg C, representing 4.7% of the world storage. Carbon storage in the surface organic horizons which is most sensitive to interactions with the atmosphere and environmental change is 32.54 Pg C.