Soil organic carbon sequestration potential of cropland in China

Abstract Soil organic carbon (SOC) in cropland is of great importance to the global carbon (C) balance and to agricultural productivity, but it is highly sensitive to human activities such as irrigation and crop rotation. It has been observed that under certain improved management practices, cropland soils can sequestrate additional C beyond their existing SOC level before reaching the C saturation state. Here we use data from worldwide, long‐term agricultural experiments to develop two statistical models to determine the saturated SOC level (SOC S ) in upland and paddy agroecosystems, respectively. We then use the models to estimate SOC sequestration potential (SOC P ) in Chinese croplands. SOC P is the difference between SOC S and existing SOC level (SOC E ). We find that the models for both the upland and paddy agroecosystems can reproduce the observed SOC S data from long‐term experiments. The SOC E and SOC S stock in Chinese upland and paddy croplands (0–30 cm soil) are estimated to be 5.2 and 7.9 Pg C with national average densities of 37.4 and 56.8 Mg C ha −1 , respectively. As a result, the total SOC sequestration potential is estimated to be 2.7 Pg C or 19.4 Mg C ha −1 in Chinese cropland. Paddy has a relatively higher SOC E (45.4 Mg C ha −1 ) than upland (34.7 Mg C ha −1 ) and also a greater SOC P at 26.1 Mg C ha −1 compared with 17.2 Mg C ha −1 in the upland. The SOC varies dramatically among different regions. Northeast China has the highest SOC E and SOC S density, while the Loess Plateau has the greatest SOC P density. The time required to reach SOC saturation in Chinese cropland is highly dependent on management practices applied. Chinese cropland has relatively low SOC density in comparison to the global average but could have great potentials for C sequestration under improved agricultural management strategies.