Land-use impacts on profile distribution of labile and recalcitrant carbon in the Ili River Valley, northwest China

There is a growing evidence that the decomposition of recalcitrant carbon (C) can be stimulated by environmental changes, such as fresh C supply and increased temperature. However, the effect of land-use on profile distribution of recalcitrant C content is still poorly understood. In this study, soil samples were collected to a depth of 100 cm from pastures and four major croplands including maize field, wheat field, paddy and apple orchard in the Ili River Valley, northwest China, to investigate the effects of land-use on profile distribution of labile organic C (LOC), semi-labile organic C (SLOC), recalcitrant organic C (ROC) and their relative proportions in total organic C (TOC), and evaluate whether such effects can be different between topsoil (0–20 cm) and subsoil (20–100 cm). The results showed that soil ROC accounting for 49.4–66.3% of TOC for different land-uses, implying that ROC is the major form of soil organic C (SOC). Soil TOC contents of croplands were 20.4–85.2% lower than those of pastures along the soil profile, indicating that SOC pool may be decreased by agricultural land-uses. The lower contents of LOC, SLOC and ROC in croplands than in pastures suggested that the decreases in TOC content in croplands are not only due to the decreases in labile C pool but also the reductions in recalcitrant C pool. The differences in SOC fractions among land-uses were similar in topsoil and subsoil, while the proportions of each SOC fraction in TOC did not differ significantly between the two soil layers in most cases, indicating that each SOC fraction in subsoil can be also influenced by land-use types. Therefore, it is suggested that the ROC in subsoil, which plays a crucial role in C sequestration, should be taken into account when estimating the effect of land-use on SOC kinetic.