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Losses of soil organic carbon under wind erosion in China

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DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2005.00950.x

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Global Change Biology (2005) 11, 828–840, doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2005.00950.x

Losses of soil organic carbon under wind erosion in

China
H A O Y A N *, S H A O Q I A N G W A N G w , C H A N G Y A O W A N G z, G U O P I N G Z H A N G * AND
N I L A N C H A L PAT E L §
*Division of Remote Sensing and Agrometerology, National Meteorological Center, China Meteorological Administration,
Zhongguancun South Street, 46, Haidian District, Beijing 100081, China, wThe Synthesis Research Center, Chinese Ecosystem
Research Network, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101,
China, zLaboratory of Remote Sensing Information Sciences, Institute of Remote Sensing Applications, Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Beijing 100101, China, §Department of Remote Sensing, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi 835215, India

Abstract
Soil organic carbon (SOC) storage generally represents the long-term net balance of
photosynthesis and total respiration in terrestrial ecosystems. However, soil erosion can
affect SOC content by direct removal of soil and reduction of the surface soil depth; it
also affects plant growth and soil biological activity, soil air CO2 concentration, water
regimes, soil temperature, soil respiration, carbon flux to the atmosphere, and carbon
deposition in soil. In arid and semi-arid region of northern China, wind erosion caused
soil degradation and desert expansion. This paper estimated the SOC loss of the surface
horizon at eroded regions based on soil property and wind erosion intensity data. The
SOC loss in China because of wind erosion was about 75 Tg C yr
1 in 1990s. The spatial
pattern of SOC loss indicates that SOC loss of the surface horizon increases significantly
with the increase of soil wind erosion intensity. The comparison of SOC loss and annual
net primary productivity (NPP) of terrestrial ecosystem was discussed in wind erosion
regions of China. We found that NPP is also low in the eroded regions and heavy SOC
loss often occurs in regions where NPP is very small. However, there is potential to
improve our study to resolve uncertainty on the soil organic matter oxidation and soil
deposition processes in eroded and deposited sites.
Keywords: Asian dust, desertification, net primary productivity, soil organic carbon, wind erosion

Received 27 January 2004; revised version received 21 November 2004; accepted 17 December 2004

capacity, and soil biodiversity (Tisdall & Oades, 1982;

Introduction
The soil organic carbon (SOC) storage represents the
long-term net balance of photosynthesis and total
respiration in terrestrial ecosystems (Schlesinger,
1990). The SOC pool is the largest in terrestrial
ecosystem and a small amount of fluxes into and out
of this pool can result in large fluxes on a global scale
(Post et al., 1990; Houghton et al., 1983, 1999; Houghton,
1999; Wang et al., 2001a; Murty et al., 2002). The SOC, to
a large extent, moderates and regulates processes
associated with soil degradation and productivity
through its influence on soil structural stability, water
holding capacity, nutrient bioavailability, buffering
Correspondence: Hao Yan, tel. 86 10 68409655, fax 86 10 62172982,
e-mail: yanhaon@yahoo.com.cn
Oades, 1984; Lal et al., 1990). Therefore, soil also plays
active role in sequestrating carbon from atmosphere
and alleviating increases of greenhouse gases concen-
tration through adopting new technique (Metting et al.,
2001; Rosenberg & Izaurralde, 2001). Hence, there is an
increasing demand to study SOC dynamics in different
ecoregions of the world (Ingram & Fernandes, 2001;
Landi et al., 2003).
Soil erosion is a major environmental and agricultural
problem worldwide (Pimental et al., 1995; Trimble &
Crosson, 2000). The previous work has indicated that
soil erosion affects SOC content by direct removal of
soil from the surface horizon; it also affects plant
growth and soil biological activity, soil air CO2
concentration, water regimes, soil temperature, soil
respiration, carbon flux to the atmosphere, and carbon
deposition in soils (Chengere & Lal, 1995; Lal, 1995;

828 r 2005 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

 SOIL ORGANIC CARBON AND WIND EROSION IN CHINA
France-Lanord & Derry, 1997; Izaurralde et al., 1998;
Bajracharya et al., 1998, 2000; Smith et al., 2001).
Some researchers have reported that soil erosion and
deposition may play important roles in balancing the
global atmospheric carbon budget through their impacts
on the net exchange of carbon between terrestrial
ecosystems and atmosphere (Smith et al., 2001; Liu et
al., 2003d). For example, Stallard (1998) highlighted that
soil erosion could have a major effect on both soil carbon
pools and sequestration of soil carbon. Furthermore,
high soil erosion rates could strongly influence the
national terrestrial C balance and C budget (Tate
et al., 2000; Smith et al., 2001). As pointed out by
Schlesinger (1990), most soils are at least 3000 years old
and it is very difficult to restore original soil fertility, soil
structure, SOC content, nutrient and other soil proper-
ties within several or decadal years after soil erosion.
The land area affected by accelerated water erosion is
estimated at about 1.1  109 ha, and wind erosion at
about 5.5  108 ha in the world (Lal, 1995). Each year, 75
billion metric tons of soils are removed from the land by
wind and water erosion, with most coming from
agricultural land (Myers, 1993). According to Lal’s
research, the erosion could result in 1.14 Pg C
(1 Pg 5 1015 g) emission from soil into atmosphere and
the global terrestrial SOC pool lose 0.38% because of soil
erosion each year (Lal, 1995). However, erosion, deposi-
tion, and redistribution of soil may not result in a net
loss of carbon at the landscape level because it may be
redeposited on the landscape instead of being released
to the atmosphere (van Noordwijk et al., 1997; Lal et al.,
1998; Stallard, 1998; Liu et al., 2003d). The displaced
sediment tends to be enriched in SOC and sedimenta-
tion may lead to increased SOC content of depositional
soil (Frye et al., 1982; Fahnestock et al., 1995a, b).
Nutrient loss in the eroded areas and carbon
sequestration have become focus of attention (Ebeid
et al., 1995; Fahnestock et al., 1995a, b; Lal, 1995;
Bajracharya et al., 1998; Izaurralde et al., 1998; Smith
et al., 2001; Liu et al., 2003d). De Jong & Kachanoski
(1988) have studied the influence of soil erosion on SOC
storage based on measured data in original samples in
the 1960s and the samples collected in the 1980s using
137
Cs measurement and organic carbon contents. There
are lots of uncertainties regarding the influences of
water and wind erosion on SOC dynamics and large
scope to further improve the estimation of the net SOC
loss because of wind erosion.
Soil erosion rates are very high in Asia, Africa, and
South America, averaging 30–40 t ha
1 yr
1 (Barrow,
1991). In winter and spring season, cold wind blows
surface soil away from the Gobi desert and its
surrounding area, and causes a lot of ecological
problem, such as Asian Dust Storm. Soil erosion in
r 2005 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Global Change Biology, 11, 828–840
829
China has been a matter of public concern since the
1970s (Ye et al., 2000). During the process of soil
desertification in northern China, wind erosion led to a
great amount of SOC loss from the surface soil (Duan
et al., 1996). One serious dust storm erosion is estimated
as more than 0.64 Mt by relating dust mass load with
extinction based on remote sensing data (Yan et al.,
2002). As pointed out by Zhang et al. (2001), key driving
factors of wind erosion of soil are wind speed, soil
dryness, vegetation index NDVI, soil properties, and
land surface slope in China.
Numerous studies focused on the effects of different
management systems and land use changes on ecosys-
tems in China were published (Liu & Buheaosier, 2000;
Liu et al., 2000, 2003a, b, c; Wang et al., 2002a, b, 2003a).
Not only is there a lack of research regarding wind
erosion and deposition impacts on SOC content and
NPP in China, but also the study of the influence of
wind erosion on the SOC pool has not been thoroughly
investigated. The aim of the work described in this
paper was to elucidate further the effects of wind
erosion on the SOC pool based on remote sensing and
soil inventory data. Our specific objectives were to: (1)
evaluate the effects of wind erosion on the SOC
contents in China; (2) characterize the spatial pattern
of the SOC loss from wind erosion; and (3) investigate
the relationship among the SOC storage, NPP, and
wind erosion in China.
Materials and methods
Data sources
Remotely sensed NDVI, meteorological, solar radiation,
soil texture and structure, field and wind erosion
intensity data were used in this study. All data sets
were resampled to a 1 km  1 km spatial resolution.
Monthly 8 km NDVI data sets for 1992 we used is part
of NOAA/NASA Pathfinder AVHRR Land (PAL) data
sets delivered from the Distributed Active Archive
Center (DAAC) at the Goddard Space Flight Center
(ftp://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/avhrr/global_8km/).
A maximum value composite (MVC) technique is used
to minimize the effect of clouds and aerosols and to get
maximum NDVI value. A more detailed description of
NDVI processing algorithm is given by Agbu & James
(1994).
Monthly temperature, precipitation, average wind
speed, sunshine duration data sets for 1992 and annual
precipitation, wind speed data sets averaged for 30
years (1970–1999) were compiled by China National
Meteorological Center, which comprises data of 658
weather stations. Total solar radiation of 658 weather
stations was computed using a climate model (Hou
830 H . Y A N et al.
et al., 1993) and this empirical model calculates monthly
surface irradiance from sunshine duration. Maps used
in this paper consist of 1 : 14 000 000 China Map of soil
texture (Deng, 1986) and 1 : 4 000 000 China Map of soil
type (Tian et al., 1996), respectively.
Field soil data sets, part of second national soil
survey (1979–1992), include soil area, soil organic
content, average depth, bulk density, and carbon
contents for total 2473 soil profiles (National Soil
Survey Office, 1993, 1994a, b, 1995a, b, 1996, 1998).
Wind erosion intensity of soils for China was investi-
gated by the Institute of Remote Sensing Applications
(IRSA), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). This
research used Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) images
(mainly for 1995–1996) to determine the wind erosion
intensity according to two critical indices (the percent
of vegetation cover and the area ratio of wind erosion)
combined with land-use, soil texture, DEM (Digital
Elevation Model), and some site observation data
following the procedure of investigation shown in
Fig. 1 (Zhang et al., 2001).
Estimation of net primary production
The Carnegie-Ames-Stanford Approach (CASA) terres-
trial ecosystem model simulates the terrestrial carbon
cycle on monthly timescale and reproduces realistic
fields of NPP for climatologically varied conditions
(Potter et al., 1993), which is widely used to estimate
global NPP (Potter et al., 1993), the terrestrial carbon
sink (Thompson et al., 1996), the change in seasonal
amplitude of atmospheric CO2 (Randerson et al., 1997),
carbon emissions from forest fires (Van der Werf et al.,
2003), and interannual variability of NPP (Malmström
et al., 1997). The Potsdam NPP model comparison study
showed that global NPP estimation by CASA model
(48.9 Pg C yr
1) was within the range of 44.4–
66.3 Pg C yr
1 of seventeen global NPP models (Cramer
et al., 1999). CASA calculates NPP as the product of
absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (APAR)
DEM Land use TM images Soil texture and
geological map
Slope Wind erosion area and Surface soil
vegetation cover composition
Analysis of gradation indices
for wind erosion intensity
Identification of wind erosion grade
GIS database of wind erosion
Fig. 1 The procedure of investigation for wind erosion.
and e, the light use efficiency by which APAR is
converted to assimilate. For each monthly time step,
APAR is derived from solar irradiance and NDVI.
e varies spatially and temporally as a result of the
reductions imposed by water stress and unfavorable
temperatures that reflect local environmental condi-
tions.
A more detailed description of the CASA is given by
Potter et al. (1993) and Field et al. (1995). The CASA
model takes advantage of global satellite observations
of vegetation and uses satellite derived NDVI, pre-
cipitation, temperature, solar radiation, and soil texture
data as inputs to the model. Hence, the CASA model
was used to estimate monthly terrestrial NPP in China
by using interpolated 1 km  1 km resolution datasets
for 1992. The distribution and seasonal change of NPP
in China were analyzed.
Intensity of wind erosion in China
The spatial distribution and intensity of wind erosion is
an important outcome of the second national survey of
soil erosion investigated by IRSA, CAS and Monitoring
Center of Soil and Water Conservation (MCSWC),
Chinese Ministry of Water Resources (MWR) (Zhang
et al., 2001). The survey indicates that the wind erosion
is mostly confined to the northern and western China
(Xinjiang, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, Shannxi, and Inner
Mongolia, total six provinces, see Fig. 2). Northwestern
China (mainly the desert and Gobi in Inner Mongolia,
Xinjiang, Gansu, Qinghai, and Ningxia provinces) is
heavily affected by wind erosion (Fig. 2), where the
annual average precipitation is less than 150 mm. The
eroded regions in northeastern China (mainly Eastern
Inner Mongolia) are weakly impacted by wind erosion,
with the annual average precipitation less than 300 mm
(Zhang et al., 2001). The distribution of wind erosion of
the second survey is compared with that of the other
study investigated in Inner Mongolia (Zhao et al., 1989),
and the comparison indicates that the distribution of
wind erosion is quite similar.
Because vegetation cover significantly affects the
wind erosion, two operational classification indices
Field data and
history data such as the percentage of vegetation cover and ratio of
wind erosion area in 1 km2 area were derived from TM
images with 30 m resolution and resampled to
1 km  1 km resolution datasets. According to these
two indices and other information, the wind erosion is
classified into six grades (see Table 1; Professional
Standard of the PRC, 1997; Zhang et al., 2001). The type
of weak erosion is characterized by the sparse distribu-
tion of desertification land in farmland and no erosion
occurs on the windward slopes of dunes. Eroded
grooves of slight erosion class appear in the flat
r 2005 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Global Change Biology, 11, 828–840
 SOIL ORGANIC CARBON AND WIND EROSION IN CHINA 831

Fig. 2 Spatial characteristics of intensity of wind erosion of soil in China.

Table 1 Wind erosion classes in second national survey of China

Area ratio of Vegetation Soil erosion modulus Mean of erosion

Grade of intensity wind erosion (%) cover (%) (kg m
2 yr
1) modulus (kg m
2 yr
1)

Weak o5 450 o0.3 0.2

Slight 5–25 20–50 0.3–2.5 1.0
Moderate 25–50 10–20 2.5–5.0 3.7
Intense 50–70 5–10 5.0–8.0 6.5
Highly intensified 70–90 1–5 8.0–15.0 11.5
Most intensified 490 o1 415.0 18.0

desertification land and crevasses appear on the
windward slopes of dunes, in which the erosion area
takes up 5–25% of per 1 km2 area. In regions of
moderate erosion class, there exist some big eroded
holes and have crevasses and middle eroded holes in
half of the windward slopes of dunes, in which the
dense floating sandy and brushy sand shares 25–50%
per 1 km2 area. The intense erosion class is character-
ized by the presence of big eroded holes distributed
on flat sandy land and crevasses extended to the top
of dunes. The classes of highly intense erosion and
most intense erosion have deeply eroded low lands
and deepest sheet like eroded basins, in which the
floating sand sheet and sand dunes cover, respectively,
more than 70% and 90% per 1 km2 area (Zhang et al.,
2001).
The soil erosion modulus and mean of erosion
modulus were estimated according to the standard for
gradation of soil erosion (see Table 1; Professional
Standard of the PRC, 1997). This standard is built upon
the integration of long-term field investigation for
erosion modulus and the gradation indices that can
be derived from the TM images, for which the reference
standard is widely used to investigate and characterize
quantitatively the wind erosion in China.
Yan et al. (2000) found that the erosion modulus
ranges within 2.0 and 8.4 kg m
2 yr
1 and its mean
modulus is 4.7 kg m
2 yr
1 in wind eroded regions of
Tibet Plateau using 137Cs technology. Xu et al. (1993)
estimated the wind erosion modulus of cultivated sand
land in Northeastern China using erosion pins technol-
ogy, in which the wind erosion modulus ranges
between 4.4 and 11.6 kg m
2 yr
1. Although Bajracharya
et al. (1998) have categorized wind erosion into slight,
moderate, severe, deposition and noneroded (forest)
phases based on the conditions of each study site, we
adopted six grades of intensity so as to distinguish
clearly the degree of influence of wind erosion in China.
After assigning mean of erosion modulus to the soil
patches of corresponding grade of wind erosion

r 2005 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Global Change Biology, 11, 828–840

832 H . Y A N et al.

intensity, we obtained distribution of annual quantity of corresponding grade of wind erosion intensity, and O is
wind erosion in China. organic matter content (%).

Results and discussion

Estimation of SOC pool and SOC loss of the surface
horizon
Spatial characteristics of wind erosion intensities and
Generally, a normal soil profile includes several basic NPP in China
horizons, which are A, AB, B, and C horizons. In weak
Wind erosion occurs mainly in China’s arid and semi-
erosion area, there exists obvious A horizon. However,
arid regions with less than 300 mm annual precipitation
in most intense erosion area, A and B horizons can be
averaged for 30 years (1970–2000). Another driving
eroded and C horizon is exposed as a surface horizon in
factor of wind erosion is the annual mean of wind
China. At present, annual wind eroded depth exceeds
speed above 3 m s
1 averaged for 30 years (1970–2000)
2 cm in heavy erosion area in China (Professional
mainly distributed in northern China, Tibetan Plateau,
standard of the People’s Republic of China, 1997).
and seashore, where wind erosion frequently takes
According to some researches, erosion significantly
place. The highly intensified and most intensified wind
decreased SOC contents in the surface soil layer
erosion is mainly distributed in large area of north-
(Nizeyimana & Olson, 1988; Mokma & Sietz, 1992;
western China and Inner Mongolia, in which the
Bajracharya et al., 1998). A commonly observed char-
annual average precipitation is less than 150 mm.
acteristic of eroded areas is a substantially reduced Ap
Because of differences in water and heat conditions,
horizon thickness (Frye et al., 1982; Mermut et al., 1983;
the spatial distribution of NPP has a significant
William et al., 1989), which in turn affects water-holding
geographical variability in China (Fig. 3). The overall
capacity, nutrient status, SOC content of the soil and
distribution trend is that NPP is the highest in the
productivity (Frye et al., 1982; Schertz et al., 1989;
eastern region and decreases gradually from eastern
Chengere & Lal 1995; Bajracharya et al., 1998). Because
China to western inland with decreasing precipitation
wind mainly causes erosion of the surface soil whose
and is close to zero in the western deserts. Specifically,
average thickness is about 10–20 cm in China (Lal,
NPP is only 0–10 g C m
2 yr
1 in deserts in north-
2002), in this paper we have investigated the SOC loss
western China because of the lack of precipitation.
in the surface horizon by wind erosion.
Through calculation based on CASA model, the total
First, raw data of the soil was selected from 1681 soil
NPP in 1992 for whole China was 3.25 Pg C within the
profiles, which includes depth (cm), organic matter
range of NPP estimation for China such as
content (%) and bulk density (g cm
3) of the A, B, and C
3.653 Pg C yr
1 using TEM model (Xiao, 1998),
horizons. The organic matter values were converted to
3.09 Pg C yr
1 using CEVSA model (Tao et al., 2003)
organic carbon contents using the factor 0.58 (guide-
and 2.645 Pg C yr
1 with light use efficiency model (Sun
lines in the National Soil Survey Handbook, http://
& Zhu, 2000) and the spatial pattern of NPP found in
www.statlab.iastate.edu/soils/nssh/).
this paper is similar with others’ research.
Furthermore, we characterized the spatial distribu-
tion of soil depth and SOC content (Cpool) of the surface
horizon by assigning sample value to the nearest Spatial distribution of SOC storage of the surface horizon
neighbor soil patch of China Soil Type Map (Tian
Figure 4a shows the spatial distribution of SOC storage
et al., 1996) for the same soil type. Weighted SOC
of the top horizon in China, which is similar to the
densities by the surface horizon were calculated for
previous study by Wang et al. (2001b). The SOC storage
each soil profile as a product of depth of horizon,
in the surface horizon increases with increasing latitude
concentration of C and bulk density similar to the
in eastern China and decreases with decreasing long-
method described by Wang et al. (2001a, 2003a).
itude in northern China. It shows that the SOC contents
The SOC loss (g C) because of wind erosion equals to
of forest soils and alpine soils are very high in the
annual quantity of wind erosion multiplied by organic
surface horizon. In northeastern China, the vegetation
matter content and conversion coefficient of SOC
is flourishing with high rainfall. The organic matter
(0.58 g C g SOM
1),
entering into soils are mainly in the form of deadwood
Cerosion ¼ Q  O  0:58; ð1Þ and defoliation, so the accumulation of humus is quite
apparent in the surface horizon. With the lower average
where Cerosion is the SOC loss (g C m
2 yr
1) because of temperature and presence of water on the soil surface,
wind erosion, Q is annual quantity of wind erosion soil organic matter decompose slowly and make the soil
(g m
2 yr
1) that equals the mean of erosion modulus of fertile. In southeastern Tibet and western Sichuan

r 2005 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Global Change Biology, 11, 828–840

 SOIL ORGANIC CARBON AND WIND EROSION IN CHINA
Fig. 3 Spatial distribution of terrestrial ecosystem net primary productivity in China (g C m
2 yr
1).
Province, the terrain is mainly gentle hillside, ancient
till platform, glacio-fluvial deposits. The climate is
frigid, humid, and the surface vegetation is short.
Therefore, soil organic matter decomposes very slowly.
Moreover, layers of sward and humus are well
developed, facilitating strong accumulation process of
turf organic matter.
The SOC content decreases in Loess Plateau and
Huang-Huai-Hai Plain (between 301N to 401N and
1051E to 1251E) with a long cultivation history, with
SOC content below 2.0 kg C m
2 in the surface horizon
for dryland. However, long time submerged paddy
soils are in favor of accumulating SOC because of
reduced mineralization rate, for which SOC content is
about 2.0–3.0 kg C m
2 in the surface horizon of central
and southern China, south to 301N (Fig. 4a).
Spatial distribution of SOC loss of the surface horizon
With the increasing soil wind erosion intensity, the SOC
content of the surface horizon reduces gradually (Table
2). The SOC content decreased from 2.5 to 0.9 kg C m
2
as a result of the transition from weak erosion to most
intense erosion class, with a decrease of about 64.7%. In
general, the SOC of the surface horizon is small in
regions of intensified wind erosion. In order to explore
the relationship further, the spatial comparison was
analyzed by overlapping the maps of soil wind erosion
intensity (Fig. 2) and the surface horizon SOC storage
(Fig. 4a). This indicated that wind erosion mainly
occurs in regions that have a very low SOC storage in
r 2005 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Global Change Biology, 11, 828–840
833
the surface horizon. Moreover, there is seldom soil
wind erosion in regions where the SOC content of the
surface horizon is larger than 2.0 kg C m
2.
Figure 4b displays the spatial distribution pattern of
the SOC losses of the surface horizon from the regions
exposed to wind erosion. The regions where the SOC
losses were the largest (440 g C m
2) are in the north-
ern Xinjiang, western Gansu, northwestern Qinghai
and western Inner Mongolia. There occurs significant
spatial variability of the SOC loss (Fig. 4b). For exam-
ple, the SOC loss of the surface horizon was about
11 g C m
2 in the Taklimakan Desert of Xinjiang
province and was less than 5 g C m
2 in most re-
gions of eastern Inner Mongolia, which ranges over
3000 km. Although the wind erosion is most intensified
in Taklimakan Desert, but its Cerosion is about
5–15 g C m
2 yr
1 because of the lowest SOC content
of the surface horizon. Minimum Cerosion occurs in
eastern part of Inner Mongolia where the intensity of
wind erosion is weak, where Cerosion reaches to 0–
4 g C m
2 yr
1. This pattern indicates that the surface
horizon lost more than 5 g C m
2 yr
1 in the above-
mentioned region.
The ratio of Cerosion to the SOC pool (Cpool) of the
topsoil tends to increase from northeastern China
(eastern Inner Mongolia) to northwestern China (Ning-
xia, Gansu, and Xinjiang provinces) gradually with
decreasing precipitation (Fig. 5a). The loss percentage
of SOC in the surface soil is generally less than 1% in
eastern Inner Mongolia, and 2% and 12% in western
Inner Mongolia and Takelamagan Desert, respectively.
834 H . Y A N et al.

Fig. 4 (a) Spatial distribution of the amount of soil organic carbon (SOC) of the surface horizon in China (kg C m
2); (b) spatial pattern
of SOC loss (Cerosion) under wind erosion (g C m
2).

However, the SOC loss is the largest in eastern Xinjiang,

Table 2 The soil organic content and SOC of the surface in which the ratio is generally larger than 12% (Fig. 5a).
horizon in relation to wind erosion intensity
The difference between Cerosion and NPP indicates
Wind erosion Area Mean soil organic Mean SOC that estimated Cerosion exceeded NPP in some regions of
intensity (  106 ha) content (%) (kg C m
2) northwestern China and western part of Inner Mon-
golia, with the SOC losses from 0 to 100 g C m
2 yr
1 at
Weak 29 2.0 2.5 eroded sites (Fig. 5b). However, in some regions of
Light 35 1.9 2.6 central and east of Inner Mongolia, NPP exceeded
Moderate 38 1.4 1.7
Cerosion by 0–325 g C m
2 yr
1. The transition zone
Intense 37 0.9 1.1
where Cerosion was almost equal to NPP is in the
Highly intense 39 0.5 0.6
Most intense 52 0.7 0.9 agricultural irrigation region of Niang’Xin and He’Tao.
NPP estimates here are used as a reference to compare
SOC, soil organic carbon. the magnitude of the SOC erosion losses to the

r 2005 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Global Change Biology, 11, 828–840

 SOIL ORGANIC CARBON AND WIND EROSION IN CHINA 835

Fig. 5 (a) Ratio of soil organic carbon (SOC) loss by wind erosion to SOC pool in the surface horizon (%); (b) difference of SOC loss and
net primary productivity (g C m
2 yr
1).

maximum potential inputs of C to the soil. Of course Discussion

not all NPP is converted to SOC, and it is very difficult
to measure how much NPP is bound to soil and the
substantial contribution of roots is for the SOC storage.
With increasing soil wind erosion intensity, Cerosion
increases gradually (Table 3). It indicates that the SOC
loss of the surface horizon will accelerate the wind
erosion and consequently, soil will become poorer. In
regions of weak and most intensified wind erosion, the
amount of SOC loss of the surface horizon was 0.6 and
36.7 Tg C, respectively. The total SOC loss of the surface
horizon at wind-eroded regions in China during 1990s
was about 75 Tg C yr
1.
Influences of wind erosion on SOC storage
According to the results obtained from our research,
wind erosion can cause a decrease in the SOC pool in
northern China. With expansion of desertification in
northern China, the balance of terrestrial carbon cycle
ecosystem will be changed. Duan et al. (1996) indicated
that the net emission of CO2 to atmosphere because of
soil erosion is about 124 Tg C during past 40 years; this
makes about 3 Tg C yr
1 net emission. Our calculations
suggest that wind erosion led to the removal of

r 2005 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Global Change Biology, 11, 828–840

836 H . Y A N et al.
Table 3 SOC losses from the surface horizon under different wind erosion intensity
SOC loss of the Total amount of SOC
Wind erosion surface horizon loss of the surface
intensity (g C m
2 yr
1) horizon (Tg C yr
1)
Weak 2 0.6
Light 11 3.7
Moderate 30 10.7
Intense 33 11.6
Highly intense 31 11.8
Most intense 71 36.7
NPP, net primary production; SOC, soil organic carbon.
75 Tg C yr
1 from the soil in regions in northern China.
The possible fates of that soil carbon, including
redeposition to downwind ecosystems and emission
to the atmosphere as CO2, are discussed below.
SOC loss has considerable variation at different
erosion phases and ecosystems with temporal and
spatial scales. Mermut et al. (1983) observed as much as
41% reduction in the SOC content, because of erosion
on cultivated land compared with grassland in Canada.
The wind erosion rates of soil and soil carbon losses are
estimated about 4.8 Pg yr
1 (620 t km
2 yr
1) and
34  10 Tg C yr
1 (4.3 g C m
2 yr
1) across the United
States (782  106 ha), respectively (Smith et al., 2001).
According to our calculation, the SOC loss by the wind
erosion is about 75 Tg C yr
1 (7.8 g C m
2 yr
1) across
China (960  106 ha), which is about 2.2 times the SOC
loss across the continental USA. The global total carbon
loss by the wind erosion is about 1.4 Pg C yr
1 (Smith
et al., 2001) and the soil wind erosion rate is assumed to
be about 1.0 Pg C yr
1 based on the results of Smith et al.
(2001). Then, SOC loss by wind erosion in China
occupies 7.5% of global SOC loss by wind erosion. From
the point of view of the ratio of China’s land area to
global land area (6%), the SOC loss by wind erosion in
China is considerably serious.
The influence of soil erosion on China’s soil has
received world wide attention recently. The World Bank
(2001) estimated moderately to severely eroded area as
204  106 ha in China. This is less than our estimation of
wind erosion area (230  106 ha) in 1996 based on
remote sensing. The difference in erosion area could
be because of the different methods used. Wang et al.
(2001c) also reported a decrease in SOC concentration
by erosion in soils of the Loess Plateau of China. As
pointed out by Lindert (2000) and Lal (2002), the topsoil
thickness progressively declined from 1930s (22.9 cm) to
1950s (15.4 cm) and increased to 17.6 cm again in the
1980s in China. Wen (1993) estimated soil C erosion as
15.9 Tg yr
1 in China, which is one fifth of our
r 2005 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Global Change Biology, 11, 828–840
Ratio of SOC Difference of SOC
loss to SOC NPP loss and NPP
pool (%) (g C m
2 yr
1) (g C m
2 yr
1)
0.1 239
242
0.4 187
177
1.8 107
79
2.9 55
24
5.3 38 6
8.0 41 37
estimation. These researches argued that soil erosion
is a serious environmental and ecological problem for
China, which needs more attention.
Uncertainties and conclusions
There are potential errors in the estimates of SOC losses
by wind erosion (Smith et al., 2001), because carbon flux
can go in any direction (Trimble & Crosson, 2000). We
further note that soil particulates could deposit in
places far from erosion sites. For example, Pimental
et al. (1995) reported that airborne soil particulates can
be transported thousands of miles and Parrington et al.
(1983) observed that Chinese soils have been detected
in Hawaii. Schlesinger (1995) concluded that most
eroded SOC oxidizes during erosion, rather than being
transported to the ocean by rivers. However, Smith et al.
(2001) argued apparently that most eroded soil carbon
is redeposited, rather than being oxidized and most of
that sedimentation occurs on land, rather than in the
ocean. Similarly, Yan et al. (2003) analyzed the equili-
brium of erosion and sedimentation in the GongHe
basin covering an area of 13 787 km2, Qinghai province
in China and pointed out that 58% of the eroded soil
locally redeposited, 18% of the eroded soil deposited in
form of impoundment, and 15% of the eroded soil
deposited in form of dust and dust storm.
Because of the redeposition, desert expanded with a
rate of 15.60  104 ha yr
1 from the late 1950s to the
middle 1970s and the overall area of deserted land in
northern and western China reached 3.5  107 ha (Wang
& Wu, 1999). Because it is very difficult to trace the
movement of soil particles and measure the oxidation
and deposition of SOC accurately during soil transfer,
there exist lot of uncertainties about how much SOC
was oxidized and deposited because of wind erosion.
According to Eqn (1), we presented an error equation
ðDCerosion =Cerosion Þ2 ¼ ðDQ=QÞ2 þðDO=OÞ2 to estimate the
error of SOC loss that was calculated from the annual
 SOIL ORGANIC CARBON AND WIND EROSION IN CHINA
quantity of wind erosion (Q) and soil organic matter
content (O). Because of the average 35% estimation
error of SOC storage (Wang et al., 2003b) and annual
variation of wind erosion, we only estimated relative
error of the SOC loss. It is reasonable to suppose a
relative error of O as 25% and a relative error of Q as
40% for all types of wind erosion intensity. 40% relative
error of Q means that wind erosion ranges between
current erosion grade and a more intense or weaker
erosion grade, which can explain possible variations of
Q because of annual variation of wind erosion. Then the
relative error of Cerosion is 48%. Because the total SOC
loss of the surface horizon was about 75 Tg C yr
1 in
China, then the error of SOC loss was about
75  48% 5 36 Tg C yr
1.
The calculations presented in the paper just provide a
relatively preliminary estimate of the influence of wind
erosion on SOC loss in China. It is necessary to measure
the changes in soil or soil respiration (Smith et al., 2001).
At the same time, change in bulk density after wind
erosion also needs to be considered and it is possible to
measure these changes in soil C in a period of 5 years
using sensitive techniques such as light fraction
analysis of organic matter (Izaurralde et al., 1998).
Although soil biotas are often ignored in the assessment
of the impact of erosion, they are critical component of
the soil and constitute a large portion of the soil
biomass (Pimental et al., 1995). Furthermore, erosion
and sediment fluxes should be studied annually in light
of the land use and climatic conditions of that year
(Trimble & Crosson, 2000). So we would measure soil
biotas, microaggregates, soil temperature, soil water
content, decomposition, and respiration at wind ero-
sion sites for various phases, besides changes in soil
texture, SOC content, and bulk density by adopting
kinds of techniques, such as isotopic tracer.
Substantial amount of soil inorganic carbon (SIC)
exist in northern China besides SOC storage (Feng et al.,
2001, 2002). Adoption of conservation-effective systems
can minimize the impact of erosion on SOC and SIC
pool and sequester C into SOC and SIC pools (Lal,
2002). Furthermore, there exists a strong correlation
between NPP and formation of secondary carbonates,
and between SOC and secondary carbonates (Nordt
et al., 2000; Mermut et al., 2000; Landi et al., 2003). So
it is worthy of discussing the relationship of NPP,
SOC and SIC in northern China because of the huge
capacity of SOC and SIC storage. Although we have
characterized spatial pattern of wind erosion, SOC
loss, and NPP based on remote sensing data, it is
more important to have a better grasp of the size,
concentration, and movement of dust clouds (Trimble
& Crosson, 2000), which can be detected through
remote sensing.
r 2005 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Global Change Biology, 11, 828–840
837
With the expansion of desert, vegetation cover, NPP
and SOC input decrease. Based on the further compar-
ison of NPP and SOC loss by wind erosion, this paper
found that the changes in SOC was significant in
western and northern China, which are heavily affected
by wind erosion. However, some data sets are different
in date, for example, soil biophysical survey is for 1979–
1992, NPP is for 1992, and wind erosion investigation is
for 1995–1996. The inconsistency of data sources could
produce some error on the estimation of SOC loss. Yet
soil biophysical properties are quite stable within
several years, and NPP changed slowly in last 20 years
in China (Tao et al., 2003). At the same time, changes in
land cover are very small in northern China (Liu et al.,
2003b). Therefore, the difference in time scale does not
affect the main results of our paper.
In areas of wind erosion, baseline data should be
collected from erosion phases so that changes of SOC
and SIC storage can be monitored. Initially, this should
be done by ground surveys, which are quick, cheap,
and precise, but this might eventually be augmented
with cosmogenic isotopic dating and high-precision
remote sensing techniques (Trimble & Crosson, 2000).
Hence, there is an urgent need to develop a credible
database on wind erosion, remote sensing, SOC, and
SIC in China.
Acknowledgements
This research was jointly funded by National Key Basic Research
and Development Program (2002CB412501), Knowledge Inno-
vation Key Project (KZCX1-SW-01-19) from Chinese Academy of
Sciences and the Integrated Interdisciplinary Science Plan of
Land-Use/Land-Cover and Terrestrial Carbon Process (CXIOG-
E01-02-02) from Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural
Resources Research.
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