Organic Carbon Sequestration Potential and the Co-Benefits in China’s Cropland - Principles of Sustainable Soil Management in Agroecosystems - page 501

18 Organic Carbon

Sequestration Potential
and the Co-Benefits
in China's Cropland

Genxing Pan, Kun Cheng, Jufeng Zheng,
Lianqing Li, Xuhui Zhang, and Jinwei Zheng

CONTENTS
18.1 Role of SOC in China's Agriculture ............................................................. 501
18.2 Status of SOC Storage of China's Croplands ............................................... 505
18.2.1 Background SOC Stock in the 1980s ............................................... 505
18.2.2 Historical Changes in Soil Carbon Stocks of China's Croplands ..... 506
18.2.3 Carbon Stock Dynamics and Sequestration between
1980 and 2006 .................................................................................. 507
18.3 Sequestration of Organic Carbon in Croplands: Drivers, Potential, and
Technical Feasibility ..................................................................................... 509
18.4 Co-Benefits of SOC Sequestration for Crop Production and Ecosystem
Health in Croplands ...................................................................................... 512
18.5 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 516
Acknowledgment ................................................................................................... 516
Abbreviations ......................................................................................................... 516
References .............................................................................................................. 516

18.1 ROLE OF SOC IN CHINA'S AGRICULTURE
Soil organic matter (SOM) is a key natural pool of energy and capital in a holistic
assessment of global terrestrial ecosystem services (Brown and Ulgiati 1999). It is
also a vital material for soil fertility of croplands and has been proposed as a key soil
parameter for characterizing soil quality for productivity and ecosystem functioning
(Tiessen et al. 1994). In a global perspective of key soil quality parameters, topsoil
SOM content has been adopted as a more appropriate overall soil quality indicator
than other properties for the European Union's (EU) agricultural and forestry sectors
(European Commission 2002). It has been widely reported that contents of SOM in
croplands have significant control on crop productivity and functioning (Dawea et al.
2003), and this control has been well addressed by Manlay et al. (2007).

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