Spatial analysis of land use change effect on soil organic carbon stocks in the eastern regions of China between 1980 and 2000

Spatial distributions of 0–20 cm soil carbon sources/sinks caused by land use changes from the year 1980 to 2000 in an area of 2.97 × 106 km2 in eastern China were investigated using a land use dataset from a recent soil geochemical survey. A map of soil carbon sources/sinks has been prepared based on a spatial analysis scheme with GIS. Spatial statistics showed that land use changes had caused 30.7 ± 13.64 Tg of surface soil organic carbon loss, which accounts for 0.33% of the total carbon storage of 9.22 Pg. The net effect of the carbon source was estimated to be ∼71.49 Tg soil carbon decrease and ∼40.80 Tg increase. Land use changes in Northeast China (NE) have the largest impact on soil organic carbon storage compared with other regions. Paddy fields, which were mainly transformed into dry farmland in NE, and constructed land in other regions, were the largest carbon sources among the land use types. Swamp land in NE was also another large soil carbon source when it was transformed into dry farmland or paddy fields. Dry farmland in the NE region formed the largest soil organic carbon sink, as some were transformed into paddy fields, forested land, and other land use types with high SOCD.