Long-Term Effects of Natural Enclosure: Carbon Stocks, Sequestration Rates and Potential for Grassland Ecosystems in the Loess Plateau

The aim of this study was to better understand the effects of grassland restoration on carbon sequestration at the total carbon stock (plant and soil) scale. The objective of the study was to investigate the temporal carbon sink and sequestration dynamics of grassland ecosystems with five different succession communities, namely, Stipa grandis, Stipa bungeana, Artemisia sacrorum, Thymus mongolicus, and cropland succession in the hilly-gully region of the Loess Plateau, China. Twenty-four research papers were analyzed to form the basis of the subsequent field survey conducted at the Yunwu Observatory for Vegetation Protection and Eco-environment in Ningxia. Following the conversion of cropland to grassland, carbon sequestration values all increased at deeper soil depths of 40-100cm; carbon stocks within the 0-40cm profile were largely unchanged. Five time intervals, 0 (cropland) 23, 35, 58, and 78 years yielded carbon stocks of 7.69, 14.58, 16.25, 19.22, and 19.95kg/m2 at the total carbon stock scale. The main finding indicates that the conversion of cropland to grassland results in significant changes to ecosystem carbon pool properties. This finding has broad implications for the anthropogenic management of terrestrial carbon sequestration at the regional scale.