Soil organic carbon content and distribution in a small landscape of Dongguan, South China

Global warming has become an increasing concern, and using soil as a carbon sink to sequester carbon dioxide has attracted much attention in recent years. In this study, soil organic carbon (SOC) content and organic carbon density were estimated based on a. soil survey of a small landscape in Dongguan, South China, with spatial heterogeneity of SOC distribution and the impacts of land-use patterns on soil organic carbon content assessed. Field sampling was carried out based on a 150 m x 150 m grid system overlaid on the topographic map of the study area and samples were collected in three 20-cm layers to a depth of 60 cm. Spatial variability in the distribution of SOC was assessed using the Kruskal-Wall's test. Results showed that SOC in the topsoil layer (0-20 cm) was not much higher or even lower in some sites than the underlying layers, and except for the two sites covered with natural woodland, it did not exhibit a pronounced vertical gradient. The difference in both horizontal and vertical distribution of SOC was not statistically significant. However, in the topsoil layer among land-use/land-cover patterns, significant differences (P <= 0.05) in SOC distribution existed, indicating that management practices had great impact on SOC content. SOC storage in the study area to a depth of 20, 40, and 60 cm was estimated as 2.13 x 10(6) kg, 3.46 x 10(6) kg, and 4.61 x 10(6) kg, respectively.