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Sustainability
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Frontiers in Soil Carbon Sequestration in Grasslands, Agriculture and Forests
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Frontiers in Soil Carbon Sequestration in Grasslands, Agriculture and Forests

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Resources and Sustainable Utilization".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 February 2023) | Viewed by 9906

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Juejie Yang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Grassland Science, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China
Interests: soil ecology; microbial ecology; environmental science and related fields; biogeochemical cycle of carbon and nitrogen in grassland soil; microbial diversity and functional change; grassland ecosystem health evaluation; sustainable utilization of grassland resources.
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Shikui Dong

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Grassland Science, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China
Interests: responses of grassland ecosystems to climate changes and human disturbances; ecological restoration of degraded grassland ecosystems; grassland biodiversity protection; sustainable grassland grazing management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Lin Liu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Grassland Resource and Ecology Science, Grassland Science and Technology College, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
Interests: carbon and nitrogen cycle process of the alpine grassland; plant phenology and growth in the alpine grassland; mechanism of alpine ecosystem degradation; grassland degradation and wetland shrinkage.
Prof. Dr. Fei Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Grassland Research of CAAS, Hohhot 010010, China
Interests: integrated application of satellite-space-earth remote sensing technology; multi-scale remote sensing inversion of ecological parameters at global and regional scales; carbon and water cycle of vegetation; uav remote sensing monitoring of vegetation phenotype; machine learning and application development of big data.
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Soil carbon pool is the largest carbon pool in the terrestrial ecosystem, which is equivalent to 3.3 times the atmospheric carbon pool or 4.5 times the terrestrial plant carbon pool. Enhancing soil carbon sequestration capacity is an important way to slow down the increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration. It is also an important indirect emission reduction means to achieve the strategic goal of "carbon neutrality". Grassland, agriculture, and forests are the most important carbon pools of the terrestrial ecosystem, approximately accounting for 87% of the total carbon pool, of which 84% is stored in soil. Under global climate change and human disturbance, the trigger, response, adaptation, and feedback process and mechanism of soil carbon in grassland, agriculture, and forest are still unclear. More specifically, how carbon sequestration changes, where carbon sinks originate, and which projects should be strengthened to increase carbon sequestration are still largely unclear. Frontiers in soil carbon sequestration in grassland, agriculture, and forests will provide scientific basis and theoretical support for accomplishing the global new carbon neutrality pledge.

We invite papers from researchers to share findings from a field experiment (multiple sites), large-scale transect survey, combined with remote sensing products. Long-term research results are welcome.

  • Spatial–temporal patterns and drivers of grassland, agriculture, and forests carbon sink by integrating the ecological process models and remote sensing observations;
  • Variations of grassland, agriculture, and forests carbon sequestration, and response and feedback of ecological processes using long-term experiment or large-scale transect survey;
  • Exploring the mechanism of soil carbon dynamics and stability using new analyzed methods (e.g., spectroscopic methods, thermal analysis, X-ray computed tomography, and scanning electron microscopy);
  • Distinguishing the impacts of natural and anthropogenic-induced perturbations on grassland, agriculture, and forests carbon sequestration;
  • Exploring the mechanism and methods of expediting carbon sequestration rehabilitation during the ecological restoration process of a degraded ecosystem.

The articles included in this Special Issue shall explicitly address one or more of the above topics, exploring and discussing conceptual and methodological solutions, tools, and case studies.

Dr. Juejie Yang
Prof. Dr. Shikui Dong
Prof. Dr. Lin Liu
Prof. Dr. Fei Li
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • grassland, agriculture and forests
  • soil carbon sequestration
  • stability
  • spatial–temporal patterns
  • response to perturbation

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

10 pages, 1577 KB  
Article
Six Years of Grassland Cultivation Promotes CO2, N2O Emissions and CH4 Uptake with Increasing N Deposition on Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau
by Hang Shi, Hao Shen, Shikui Dong, Jiannan Xiao, Zhiyuan Mu, Ran Zhang, Xinghai Hao, Ziying Wang and Hui Zuo
Sustainability 2022, 14(18), 11434; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141811434 - 12 Sep 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2451
Abstract
Nitrogen (N) deposition has become an important factor of vital changes in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP), one of the key eco-regions in the world. To investigate how N deposition affects the fluxes of GHGs (CH4, CO2, N2O) [...] Read more.
Nitrogen (N) deposition has become an important factor of vital changes in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP), one of the key eco-regions in the world. To investigate how N deposition affects the fluxes of GHGs (CH4, CO2, N2O) in the alpine grassland ecosystem, the dominant ecosystems on QTP, we conducted control experiments in three types of alpine grasslands, including the alpine meadow (AM), alpine steppe (AS), and cultivated grassland (CG) on the QTP. In this study, four N addition gradients (0 kg Nha−1yr−1, 8 kg Nha−1yr−1, 24 kg Nha−1yr−1, and 40 kg Nha−1yr−1) were set up using ammonium nitrate from 2015 to 2020 in order to simulate N deposition at different levels, and after 6 years of continuous N application, greenhouse gases were collected from sampling plots. The results showed that simulated N deposition had no significant effect on soil GHG fluxes, while the grassland type had an extremely significant effect on soil GHG fluxes. Under the same N deposition conditions, the CH4 absorption in the cultivated grassland was higher than that in the other two types of grasslands. At low N deposition levels (CK, N1), the CO2 emission in the cultivated grassland was higher than that in the other two types of grasslands. At high N deposition levels (N2 and N3), the N2O emission in the cultivated grassland increased more significantly than it did in the other two types of grasslands. Control of grassland cultivation should be proposed as a reliable form of land-use management to reduce GHG emissions on the QTP in the era of increasing N deposition. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Frontiers in Soil Carbon Sequestration in Grasslands, Agriculture and Forests)
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11 pages, 1460 KB  
Article
Dynamics of Soil Carbon Fractions and Carbon Stability in Relation to Grassland Degradation in Xinjiang, Northwest China
by Qiao Xu, Yan Wei, Xinfeng Zhao and Hailiang Xu
Sustainability 2022, 14(10), 5860; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14105860 - 12 May 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2187
Abstract
Grassland degradation usually results in significant shifts in vegetation species composition and plant biomass, thus altering the soil organic carbon (SOC) content and stability. Dynamics of labile carbon fractions after grassland degradation were well addressed; however, the changes in stable carbon fractions were [...] Read more.
Grassland degradation usually results in significant shifts in vegetation species composition and plant biomass, thus altering the soil organic carbon (SOC) content and stability. Dynamics of labile carbon fractions after grassland degradation were well addressed; however, the changes in stable carbon fractions were poorly quantified. Soil samples at 0–10 cm and 10–20 cm depth were collected from a native grassland (NA), a lightly degraded grassland (LD), a moderately degraded grassland (MD), and a severely degraded grassland (SD) in northwest China to assess the influence of grassland degradation on the total SOC content, four SOC fractions (very labile carbon, CF1; labile carbon, CF2; less labile carbon, CF3; non-labile carbon, CF4), and SOC stability. Compared with the NA, the contents under LD, MD, and SD at 0–20 cm depth reduced by 20.58%, 29.22%, and 64.58% for total SOC, 21.38%, 23.00%, and 63.66% for CF1, 13.81%, 20.58%, and 62.26% for CF2, 24.30%, 35.05%, and 68.63% for CF3, and 22.17%, 38.80%, and 63.82% for CF4, respectively. The linear relationships between the total SOC and the four fractions of CF1, CF2, CF3, and CF4 were significant in this study. The lability index of SOC under the NA, LD, MD, and SD was 1.57, 1.59, 1.67, and 1.57, respectively, and no significant difference was found among the four grasslands. To conclude, grassland degradation changes the contents of total SOC and its labile and stable fractions but did not change the SOC stability in northwest China. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Frontiers in Soil Carbon Sequestration in Grasslands, Agriculture and Forests)
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16 pages, 4286 KB  
Article
Assessing the Net Primary Productivity Dynamics of the Desert Steppe in Northern China during the Past 20 Years and Its Response to Climate Change
by Bo Yang, Xiaoshuang Li, Yaqi Xian, Yalin Chai, Min Li, Kaidie Yang and Xiaorui Qiu
Sustainability 2022, 14(9), 5581; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14095581 - 6 May 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 4036
Abstract
The net primary productivity (NPP) dynamics in arid and semi-arid ecosystems are critical for regional carbon management. Our study applied a light-utilization-efficiency model (CASA: Carnegie–Ames–Stanford Approach) to evaluate the vegetation NPP dynamics of a desert steppe in northern China over the [...] Read more.
The net primary productivity (NPP) dynamics in arid and semi-arid ecosystems are critical for regional carbon management. Our study applied a light-utilization-efficiency model (CASA: Carnegie–Ames–Stanford Approach) to evaluate the vegetation NPP dynamics of a desert steppe in northern China over the past 20 years, and its response to climate change. Our results show that the annual average NPP of the desert steppe was 132 g C m−2 y−1, of which the grass- and shrub-dominated biome values were 142 and 91 g C m−2 y−1, respectively. The average change rate of NPP was 1.13 g C m−2 y−1, and in the grassland biome 1.31 g C m−2 y−1, a value which was significantly higher than that in shrubland, at 0.84 g C m−2 y−1. The precipitation and temperature at different time scales in the desert steppe showed a slow upward trend, and the degree of aridity tended to weaken. The correlation analysis shows that NPP changes were significantly positively and negatively correlated with precipitation and temperature, respectively. In terms of temperature, 43% of the area was significantly correlated during the growing season, which decreased to 12% on the annual scale. In 31% of the changed areas, the average NPP was 148.1 g C m−2 y−1, which was higher than the remaining significant areas. This suggests that higher NPP levels help to attenuate the negative effects of high temperature during the growing season on plant productivity in the desert steppe. This improves the understanding of the carbon cycle mechanism of arid and semi-arid ecosystems, which is beneficial to improving sustainable grassland development strategies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Frontiers in Soil Carbon Sequestration in Grasslands, Agriculture and Forests)
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