Temperature effect on erosion-induced disturbances to soil organic carbon cycling

Wang, Z.;Zhang, Y.;Govers, G.;Tang, G.;Van Oost, Kristof;et.al.
(2023) Nature Climate Change — Vol. 13, n° 2, p. 174-181 (2023)

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Authors
  • Wang, Z.Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Water Quality Improvement and Ecological Restoration for Watersheds, Institute of Environmental and Ecological Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China.
    Author
  • Zhang, Y.Key Laboratory of Urbanization and Geo-simulation of Guangdong Province, School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
    Author
  • Govers, G.Division of Geography, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
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  • Tang, G.Key Laboratory of Urbanization and Geo-simulation of Guangdong Province, School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
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  • Van Oost, KristofUCLouvain
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Abstract
Erosion exerts control on soil organic carbon (SOC) and both erosion and SOC are affected by climate. To what extent temperature controls the coupling between these erosion–C interactions remains unclear. Using 137Cs and SOC inventories from catchments spanning different climates, we find that increasing decomposition rates with temperature result in the efficient replacement of SOC laterally lost by erosion in eroding areas but lower preservation of deposited SOC in depositional areas. When combined at the landscape level, the erosion-induced C sink strength per unit lateral SOC flux increases with temperature from 0.19 g C (g C)−1 at 0 °C to 0.24 g C (g C)−1 at 25 °C. We estimated that the global C sink of 0.050 Pg C yr−1 induced by water erosion on croplands increases by 7% because of climate change. Our results reveal a negative feedback loop between climate change and erosion-induced disturbance to SOC cycling.
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Wang, Z., Zhang, Y., Govers, G., Tang, G., Quine, T. A., Qiu, J., Navas, A., Fang, H., Tan, Q., & Van Oost, K. (2023). Temperature effect on erosion-induced disturbances to soil organic carbon cycling. Nature Climate Change, 13(2), 174-181. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01562-8 (Original work published 2023)