Geoderma 155 (2010) 3135

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Geoderma
j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s e v i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / g e o d e r m a

Soil organic carbon and total nitrogen as affected by vegetation types in Northern
Loess Plateau of China
Xiaoli Fu a,b, Mingan Shao a,, Xiaorong Wei a, Robert Horton c
a
State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences & Ministry of Water Resources,
Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China
b
Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China
c
Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 7 February 2009
Received in revised form 29 October 2009
Accepted 22 November 2009
Available online 31 December 2009
Keywords:
Soil organic carbon
Total nitrogen
Vegetation type
Northern Loess Plateau

a b s t r a c t
One of the most fragile areas in the China Loess Plateau, is the transitional belt that is subjected to wind and
water erosion. The transitional belt accounts for about 30% of the Loess Plateau area. To reduce soil
degradation in the Loess Plateau, the Chinese government initiated a state-funded vegetation restoration
project in 1999. The effectiveness of this project on transitional belt soils is unknown. The objective of this
study is to determine the effects of four dominant vegetation types on soil organic carbon (SOC) and nitrogen
(N) in a selected catchment within the transitional belt. Korshinsk Peashrub (KOP), purple alfalfa (ALF), and
natural fallow (NAF) were selected as vegetation restoration types because they have been used widely to
remedy soil degradation. The fourth vegetation type selected was millet (MIL) because it has been an
important crop in the region. In 2004, four 61 5 m plots were established on 12 slope land. The plots were
parallel and separated by 80 cm. Based upon soil samples collected in August of 2007, there were large
variations in the distributions and stocks of SOC and N across the four vegetation types. Compared with MIL,
KOP signicantly increased the concentration and stock of SOC and total nitrogen (TN) in 0100 cm soil
proles, while ALF and NAF were not signicantly different. The distributions of SOC and TN concentrations
and stocks of KOP, ALF and NAF were relatively uniform along a hillslope, while there was an increasing
trend along the hillslope in MIL. This result suggests that ALF and NAF would be benecial in SOC and TN
sequestration over a long-term because of their ability to reduce the loss of SOC and TN by soil erosion. We
also found that both vegetation types and hillslope position had no signicant effects on C:N ratio. Our study
demonstrated that improvements of SOC and TN stocks in the transitional belt could be made through well
managed vegetation restoration measures.
2009 Published by Elsevier B.V.

1. Introduction
The biogeochemical cycles of carbon and nitrogen in terrestrial
ecosystems have received increasing attention worldwide over the
past decade, because the emission of their oxides into atmosphere
plays an important role in driving global warming. Soil organic carbon
(SOC) is a major component of the terrestrial carbon (C) pool, with
the amount of C being as much as two to three times more than in
living vegetation (Post and Kwon, 2000). Moreover, changes in the
SOC pool can inuence the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere
(Smith, 2008). Understanding the sequestration potential of SOC is
crucial for developing effective management approaches for reducing
atmospheric CO2 concentrations.
Many factors impact the biogeochemical cycling of SOC, and
consequentially impact the distribution and stock of SOC. One

Corresponding author.
E-mail address: mashao@ms.iswc.ac.cn (M. Shao).
0016-7061/$ see front matter 2009 Published by Elsevier B.V.
doi:10.1016/j.geoderma.2009.11.020

important factor is land use change. Although the effect of the

conversion of native forestry or pasture to agricultural lands on SOC
pool varies due to differences in different ecosystems and regions
(Solomon et al., 2000; Rodrguez-Murillo, 2001; Powers, 2004; Yimer
et al., 2007), globally, through cultivation and other disturbance, soils
have lost more than 40 Pg C, and emitted around 1.6 Pg C y 1 to the
atmosphere during the 1990s (Smith, 2008). Pressure for food and
fodder production to meet the needs of an increasing population
drives conversion of native forestry or pasture to croplands worldwide (Smith et al., 2007; Eaton et al., 2008). A reduction of the SOC
pool by decreasing native forestry or pasture can be slowed by
improving soil management such as increasing the use of no-till
(Puget and Lal, 2005; Grandy and Robertson, 2007), but improving the
SOC pool may require converting croplands to forestry or pasture
(Eaton et al., 2008).
China, the largest developing country, has experienced a widespread conversion from natural vegetation lands into croplands or
intensive land use due to an expanding human population and
changing lifestyle. Without exception, the land use changes caused a

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X. Fu et al. / Geoderma 155 (2010) 3135

dramatic decrease of SOC. According to the database of China's second

national soil survey, the total SOC pool in the surface 1 m of soil
declined by 7 Pg due to cultivation of natural soils. This total loss of
SOC induced by land use changes represents about 9.5% of the world's
SOC decrease (Wu et al., 2003). For the topsoil (about 30 cm), also
from the database of China's second national soil survey, cultivation of
China's soils resulted in a SOC decrease of 15 t C ha 1 on average and
an overall pool reduction of 2 Pg (Song et al., 2005). To improve the
potential of SOC sequestration and alleviate land degradation, the
Chinese government imposed polices for some fragile ecosystems,
such as the 1999 state-funded Grain-for-Green project in the Loess
Plateau and livestock grazing was banned in 2000 from the agropastoral ecotone. Studies showed that, in the Loess Plateau, compared
with cropland in 1976, SOC concentration in the surface soil (010 cm)
increased by 122 to 163% when it was converted into shrubland, and
by 102% for wild grassland. In an agro-pastoral ecotone of Inner
Mongolia, restoring severely degraded and overgrazed grasslands
could potentially increase SOC stores by more than 55%, and conversion from the native grasses to alfalfa could increase SOC by more
than 20% (Chen et al., 2007; Zhou et al., 2007).
The Loess Plateau of China, with a total area of 62.4 104 km2, is
subjected to population, resource and environmental pressures. In the
Loess Plateau, an area classied as a typical ecotone is the transitional
belt area subject to accelerated water erosion and wind erosion (from
south to north). This transitional belt (latitude 35254038N,
longitude 1030011353E), has an area of about 17.8 104 km2
which is about 30% of the Loess Plateau (Tang, 2000). The Shenmu
County of Shaanxi province, located in the transitional belt, has
experienced remarkable land use changes since the 1950s. Historically, the native vegetation of the transitional belt was subjected to
damage because of the pressure for providing food and for an
expanding population; after the 1950s, under government regulations
of reforestation/planting grass, the eco-environment was improved;
by the mid-1980s, the restoration area has extended to more than one
third of the total transitional belt (Hou and Tang, 1994). Beginning in
1987 expanded coal mining disturbed some of the forest and pasture
areas. The conversion of degraded lands into forests or grasslands was
again emphasized by the local government in 1991, and was
essentially promoted by the state-funded project, Grain-for-Green,
in 1999. The efforts are expected to help improve the regional ecoenvironment as well as the SOC sequestration, but there is little
documentation available for the soils located in the transitional belt
area.
The objectives of this study were to: (1) study the effects of three
common vegetation restoration types, shrubland, alfalfa pasture and
natural fallow, on the SOC and total nitrogen (TN) of sloping land in the
transitional belt area; (2) investigate the effect of hillslope position on
the distribution of SOC and TN in the transitional belt area; and (3)
quantify the inuence of different vegetation restoration types on SOC
and nitrogen stocks. Not only will this study provide specic information on the effects of vegetation and land use changes on SOC and
nitrogen distributions and stocks in the transitional belt area, but it will
also provide regionally based, policy-relevant information on impacts of
the national policy on land use change.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Study site
The study site, as shown in Fig. 1, is located at the Shenmu Erosion
and Environment Research Station of the Institute of Soil and Water
Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in the Liudaogou
catchment in Shenmu County, Shaanxi, situated on the northern
Loess Plateau (38463851N, 1102111023E). The area is
characterized by a semiarid climate, with a mean annual rainfall of
about 437 mm, most of which falls in intense storms from June to

Fig. 1. Location of the study site.

September. The mean annual air temperature is 7 to 9 C. The study

area is representative of the transitional belt subjected to both wind
and water erosion.
The soil is a Calcaric Regosol (FAO-UNESCO), developed from low
fertility loess. The soil has weak cohesion, high inltrability, low water
retention, and is prone to erosion. The soil is deep and carbonatebearing, and it has a thin calcareous layer at depths of 5070 cm.
Selected soil physical and chemical properties for the 020 cm soil
layer are shown in Table 1.
Widespread vegetation restoration has been implemented in the
region during the past decade to remedy the soil degradation
problem. The vegetation restoration type is predominately perennial
vegetations, including purple alfalfa (Medicago sativa), Korshinsk
Peashrub (Caragana korshinskii Kom), or abandoning cropland for
natural vegetation recovery.

2.2. Experimental design

In 2004, four 61 5 m plots were established on sloping land. Parallel
plots were separated by 80 cm along a hillslope of 12. Baseline
chemistry properties of this sloping land (010 cm) were measured,
with SOC of 1.27 g kg 1, and TN of 0.19 g kg 1. The land was tilled to a
depth of 20 cm before establishing the plots. Each plot was isolated from
lateral water ow by 0.7 m tall concrete walls. The concrete walls had
0.5 m below the surface and 0.2 m above the surface. The treatments
consisted of three vegetation restoration patterns and one cropland as a
control: (1) a leguminous shrub, Korshinsk Peashrub (KOP), (2) a
leguminous herbage, purple alfalfa (ALF), (3) fallow for natural vegetation recovery (NAF), and (4) millet (MIL), a primary crop in the area. The
KOP and ALF were planted with row spacings of 70 and 50 cm, respectively. The KOP was not harvested or fertilized after planting. The ALF
was harvested annually in late August (cut near the soil surface) at the
peak biomass, and did not receive fertilization. The NAF treatment was

Table 1
Selected soil physical and chemical properties for 020 cm soil layer. SOC and Ks are soil
organic carbon and saturated hydraulic conductivity, respectively.
Clay
(%)

Silt
(%)

Sand
(%)

SOC
(g kg 1)

Bulk density
(g cm3)

Field capacity
(g g1)

Ks
(mm min 1)

15.6

44.0

40.4

1.62

1.48

0.19

0.94

X. Fu et al. / Geoderma 155 (2010) 3135

not cultivated or fertilized. Predominant species in NAF in 2007 were

Stipa bungeana, Lespedeza davurica, Artemisia capillaris and Leymus
secalinus. The MIL received annual tillage to 20 cm depth in May and was
harvested near the soil surface in late August when the biomass peaked.
During the growing season, the MIL was weeded monthly by manual
hoes. The MIL was fertilized with 120 kg ha 1 N and 60 kg ha 1 P2O5
annually as recommended by the local agriculture service.
2.3. Soil sampling and laboratory analyses
On 30 August 2007, four growing seasons after the start of the
experiment, soil and plant samples were collected every 5 m along the
hillslope (12 sampling locations in each plot). Sampling occurred
1 day before ALF and MIL were harvested. The plots were divided into
three equal parts: upper, mid- and lower hillslope position. Therefore,
there were four replications at each hillslope position. Soil samples
were taken along the hillslope for each plot at ve depth increments:
0 to 20, 20 to 40, 40 to 60, 60 to 80 and 80 to 100 cm. The soil samples
were air-dried and passed through 1.0 mm sieves before performing
soil organic carbon and total nitrogen measurement. The aboveground biomasses of KOP, ALF and MIL were taken using 1.5 4 m,
1 1 m and 1 1 m subplots, respectively, and then dried at 65 C in
the oven for 72 h to estimate dry weight. Plant samples were ground
to pass a 20-mesh sieve before performing the nutrient analysis.
Relatively small precipitation in this semiarid climate causes a slow
regeneration of natural vegetation in this region. The aboveground
biomass of NAF was only 0.022 kg m 2 which was too small to be
included in the detailed plant analyses. In order to minimize
disturbance of the long-term experimental plots, soil bulk density
was determined with cores collected from each depth increment
within pits in a nearby eld having identical vegetation types as the
corresponding treatments. The bulk density was used to convert
organic carbon and nitrogen values fro g kg1 to kg m2.
Total N in plant samples was determined after the vegetative
samples were digested with concentrated H2SO4 and H2O2. The soil
organic carbon was measured by extracting 0.5 g soil samples with
5 ml of 1 N K2Cr2O7 and 10 ml of concentrated H2SO4 at 150 C for
30 min, followed by titration of the extracts with standardized FeSO4.
Total N of soil was measured with the Kjeldahl method. Blanks were
run though the analysis to detect any sources of contamination.
2.4. Data analysis
One-way analysis-of-variance (ANOVA) was used to examine the
effects of vegetation restoration types and hillslope position on the
concentrations and stocks of soil carbon and nitrogen. If signicant
effects were observed by ANOVA, a least signicant difference [LSD
(0.05)] test was used.
3. Results
3.1. SOC concentration
SOC concentrations varied with soil depth, vegetation restoration
type and hillslope position (Table 2). For KOP, SOC was signicantly
greater in the 060 cm soil layer than the 60100 cm soil layer. For ALF,
SOC was greatest in the 040 cm soil layer. For NAF and MIL, SOC was
signicantly greater in the 020 cm soil layer. Among the vegetation
types, the KOP generally had signicantly greater SOC in the 0100 cm
soil layer compared with ALF, NAF and MIL, although MIL had relatively
large SOC in top 20 cm soil layer as well. Additionally, in the top 20 cm
soil layer, there was no signicant effect of hillslope position on SOC for
KOP, ALF and NAF, but there was a signicantly smaller SOC at the upper
hillslope position for MIL (P = 0.012).

33

Table 2
Soil organic carbon (SOC) (g kg 1) at different soil depths and hillslope positions for
Korshinsk Peashrub (KOP), purple alfalfa (ALF), fallow (NAF) and millet (MIL). Values
followed by different lower-case letters within columns and upper-case letters within
rows are signicantly different at P b 0.05.
KOP
Depth (cm)
020
2.11aA
2040
1.74aA
4060
1.72aA
6080
1.20bA
80100
1.29bA
Hillslope position (020 cm)
Upper
1.96a
Mid
2.20a
Lower
2.18a

ALF

NAF

MIL

1.34aB
1.13acB
0.93bcB
0.83bcAB
0.80bB

1.23aB
0.90bB
0.82bB
0.81bB
0.84bB

1.79aA
1.10bB
0.98bB
0.86bAB
0.82bB

1.15a
1.12a
1.74a

1.40a
0.98a
1.32a

1.24b
2.01a
2.11a

3.2. TN
The effects of soil depth, vegetation restoration type and hillslope
position on TN were similar to, though somewhat different from,
those on soil organic carbon (Table 3). Consistent with SOC, the TN of
KOP was signicantly larger in the 060 cm soil layer than in the 60
100 cm soil layer. However, TN of the 020 cm layer was signicantly
larger than that of the 60100 cm soil layer for ALF and the 4060 cm
soil layer for NAF and MIL, and statistically comparable to the value of
the 2040 cm soil layer. The KOP had signicantly larger TN with an
average value of 0.20 g kg 1 (0100 cm layer) compared with the
other vegetation restoration types which had average values less than
0.13 g kg 1 (0100 cm layer). Specically, KOP resulted in a TN increase
of approximately 30% for the 020 cm layer, 80% for the 2060 cm layer,
and 45 to 60% for the 60100 cm layer compared with MIL. The ALF and
NAF had no signicant increases in TN at all soil depths in the 0100 cm
soil prole. There was a trend of larger TN accumulated at the lower
position in MIL in the 020 cm soil layer, and signicantly larger TN was
observed at the mid- and lower positions by comparison with the values
from the upper hillslope position. For KOP, ALF and NAF, however, the
distribution of TN in the 020 cm soil layer was relatively uniform, and
hillslope position had no signicant effect on TN.
3.3. Soil carbon/nitrogen (C:N) ratios
The C:N ratios did not vary much with respect to soil depth,
vegetation type or hillslope position (Table 4). For KOP and MIL, the
C:N ratio of the 020 cm layer was signicantly larger than for the
other layers. For ALF and NAF, however, the C:N ratio was similar at all
depths. There were no signicant differences in the C:N ratio between
KOP, ALF, NAF and MIL for any layer. Hillslope position also had no
signicant effect on the C:N ratio of the 020 cm layers for the
vegetation types.
Table 3
Total nitrogen (TN) (g kg 1) at different soil depths and hillslope positions for
Korshinsk Peashrub (KOP), purple alfalfa (ALF), fallow (NAF) and millet (MIL). Values
followed by different lower-case letters within columns and upper-case letters within
rows are signicantly different at P b 0.05.
KOP
Depth (cm)
020
0.23aA
2040
0.22aA
4060
0.22aA
6080
0.16bA
80100
0.16bA
Hillslope position (020 cm)
Upper
0.22a
Mid
0.24a
lower
0.23a

ALF

NAF

MIL

0.15aBC
0.15abB
0.12abB
0.11bB
0.11bB

0.15aC
0.13abB
0.11bB
0.11bB
0.11bB

0.18aB
0.13abB
0.12bB
0.11bB
0.10bB

0.15a
0.13a
0.18a

0.14a
0.15a
0.16a

0.13b
0.22a
0.21a

34

X. Fu et al. / Geoderma 155 (2010) 3135

Table 4
Soil carbon (C):nitrogen (N) ratios at different soil depths and hillslope positions for
Korshinsk Peashrub (KOP), purple alfalfa (ALF), fallow (NAF) and millet (MIL). Values
followed by different lower-case letters within columns and upper-case letters within
rows are signicantly different at P b 0.05.
KOP
Depth (cm)
020
9.30aA
2040
8.19bA
4060
8.07bA
6080
7.67bA
80100
7.97bA
Hillslope position(020 cm)
Upper
8.89a
Mid
9.30a
Lower
9.74a

ALF

NAF

8.64aA
7.50aA
8.92aA
7.90aA
7.61aA

MIL

8.60aA
7.32aA
7.69aA
7.57aA
7.89aA

7.43a
8.72a
9.76a

9.17aA
8.33bA
8.04bA
8.21bA
8.17bA

10.20a
7.38a
8.22a

10.01a
9.28a
9.83a

3.4. SOC and TN stocks

The average amounts of soil organic carbon stocks varied from 0.36
to 0.59 kg m 2 in the 020 cm layers and 1.35 to 2.14 kg m 2 in the
entire soil prole (0100 cm) with respect to vegetation type
(Table 5). Compared with ALF, NAF and MIL, the SOC stock of the
samples from KOP were signicantly larger for the 020 cm layer and
for the 0100 cm layer. Hillslope position had no signicant effect on
the distribution of SOC stock for KOP, ALF and NAF; for MIL, however,
the SOC stocks showed a tendency to increase from upper to lower
positions, and the values of mid- and lower positions were
signicantly larger than the value from the upper position in the 0
20 cm soil layer.
The average TN stocks varied between 0.04 kg m 2 and 0.06 kg m 2
in the 020 cm soil layers and between 0.17 kg m 2 and 0.29 kg m 2 in
the 0100 cm soil layers (Table 5). Similar to SOC stock, hillslope
position had no signicant effect on TN stock except for MIL. TN stock for
MIL was signicantly smaller at the upper hillslope position.

3.5. Aboveground biomass, plant N concentration and aboveground N

pool
Aboveground biomass, plant N concentration and N pool differed
signicantly among vegetation types (Table 6). The aboveground
biomass of KOP and ALF were statistically comparable, and both were
signicantly greater than MIL. The aboveground plant N concentration
and N pool of KOP reached 74.4 g kg 1 and 23.2 g m 2, respectively,
which were signicantly larger than values for ALF and MIL.

Table 5
Soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN) stocks (kg m 2) in 020, 0100 cm
depths and at different hillslope positions for Korshinsk Peashrub (KOP), purple alfalfa
(ALF), fallow (NAF) and millet (MIL). Overall means are SOC and TN with respect to 0
20 cm and 0100 cm depth, respectively for KOP, ALF, NAF and MIL. Values followed by
different lower-case letters within columns and upper-case letters within rows are
signicantly different at P b 0.05.
Depth (cm)

Hillslope position

KOP

ALF

NAF

MIL

SOC

020

TN

0100
020

Upper
Mid
Lower
Overall
Over all
Upper
Mid
Lower
Overall
Overall

0.55a
0.62a
0.61a
0.59A
2.14A
0.06a
0.07a
0.06a
0.06A
0.29A

0.33a
0.32a
0.50a
0.38B
1.47B
0.04a
0.04a
0.05a
0.04B
0.18B

0.41a
0.28a
0.38a
0.36B
1.35B
0.04a
0.04a
0.05a
0.04B
0.18B

0.30b
0.49a
0.51a
0.43B
1.48B
0.03b
0.05a
0.05a
0.04B
0.17B

0100

Table 6
Aboveground biomass, plant nitrogen (N) concentration and N pools for Korshinsk
Peashrub (KOP), purple alfalfa (ALF), and millet (MIL). Values followed by different
upper-case letters within rows are signicantly different at P b 0.05.

Aboveground biomass(kg m )
Aboveground plant N concentration (g kg 1)
Aboveground N pool (g m 2)

KOP

ALF

MIL

0.31A
74.41A
23.24A

0.24A
20.85B
5.05B

0.09B
14.80C
1.25C

4. Discussion
4.1. Effects of vegetation types on SOC
The SOC stocks, in the transitional belt area of the Loess Plateau,
were apparently smaller than the average values across China (Wu
et al., 2003; Yu et al., 2007b), but were comparable to the values of
desert ecosystem classes and to areas where the site conditions were
similar to the present study site (Bationo and Buerkert, 2001; Yu et al.,
2007a). The relatively small SOC was caused by severe soil erosion,
low biomass productivity resulting from low and erratic rainfall, and
low soil water-holding capacities at the study site.
Although the SOC for all four vegetation types were relatively small,
the vegetation restoration (KOP, ALF and NAF) still affected SOC
distributions and stocks in varying degrees in our study. The KOP
signicantly improved SOC concentration and stock both in the 020 cm
soil layer and in the entire 0100 cm soil prole through 4 years of
restoration, compared with the other three vegetation types. This result
is partly in agreement with that of Chen et al. (2007). They reported that
shrubland was more effective in SOC improvement than grassland
during the vegetation restoration program, while vegetation restoration
had no signicant effect on the SOC sequestration in the deeper soil
layers. The reason that SOC of ALF and NAF was signicantly lower than
that of KOP can be explained by differences in the above and below
ground biomass (Yimer et al., 2007). The maximum aboveground
biomass of KOP was signicantly larger than that of ALF (Table 6); and
the ne root density of KOP was greater than that of ALF, based on
previous studies (Cheng et al., 2007; Cheng et al., 2008). Moreover, ALF
was cut near the soil surface each year in this study, meaning that the
input of SOC in terms of litter-fall was relatively small. The result that
signicant sequestration of SOC in soils (KOP) within four growing years
in the present study was inconsistent with the nding of Vesterdal et al.
(2002) who reported that afforestation did not have signicant effects
on SOC within 30 years, based on a nutrient-rich soil. Our result was in
agreement with Zhou et al. (2007) who found that land use types
altered the level of soil C store after only 3 years of land use conversion,
based on a soil with low clay content. It seems that the rapid enrichment
of SOC in the present study is associated with the soil characteristics of
low native fertility and loess parent materials. There are interactions
between soil mineralogy and soil organic carbon (Torn et al., 1997), and
the rate of C sequestration can be accelerated due to the slower
decomposition rates in some soils (Vesterdal et al., 2002).
ALF and NAF, compared with MIL, did not show much potential to
increase SOC in our study. The distributions of SOC concentration and
stock from KOP, ALF and NAF were all relatively uniform along the
hillslope compared with the accumulation trend at the lower position
for MIL. The accumulation of SOC at the lower position in the 020 cm
layer is likely caused by soil erosion and sediment deposition, because
erosion transports soil materials from the upper positions to the lower
positions. SOC losses can accompany the soil losses (Gregorich et al.,
1998; Polyakov and Lal, 2004). Studies at the same experimental plots
showed that the runoff coefcient and erosion rates of MIL were
greater than those of KOP, ALF and NAF (Zeng, 2006). The greater soil
erosion rates along with the relatively high concentration of SOC in
the 020 cm soil layer suggested that more SOC could be lost in future
surface runoff, and that the soil under MIL could become less fertile.

X. Fu et al. / Geoderma 155 (2010) 3135

Because the magnitude of SOC loss was dominated by erosion rather

than mineralization after the initial years of land use changes, thus
erosion could cause higher SOC losses than mineralization over a long
time (Gregorich et al., 1998; Martnez-mena et al., 2002). Overall,
even if ALF and NAF did not increase SOC stock directly as KOP did in
this study, they still indicated a potential to have SOC sequestration in
the long-term because of their effective capacities to hold soil on the
sloping land and consequently reduce the losses of SOC through
runoff and sediment transport.
4.2. Effects of vegetation types on TN
Our results are consistent with the earlier ndings suggesting that
SOC and TN are highly related (Kuo et al., 1997; Bationo and Buerkert,
2001; Yimer et al., 2006, Moges and Holden, 2008). Both concentration and stock of TN varied with vegetation restoration type similar to
that of SOC. Compared with MIL, KOP signicantly increased TN
concentration and stock throughout the 0100 cm prole; while TN
concentration and stock of ALF and NAF remained statistically
comparable to that of MIL. However, the concentration and stock of
TN from MIL were signicantly larger at the mid- and lower hillslope
positions, which meant that TN from MIL also showed a tendency for
down hillslope accumulation. Therefore, ALF and NAF could also effectively sequester N in sloping land over a long time scale by reducing soil
erosion.
4.3. Effects of vegetation types on C:N ratios
Results from our study supported the ndings of Sainju et al.
(2008) who reported that the C:N ratio was not inuenced by tillage,
cropping systems, and N sources, based on a time scale of 10 years.
Our results opposed other reports that land use and tillage could affect
the C:N ratio (Puget and Lal, 2005; Yimer et al., 2007).
5. Conclusions
Results of this study indicated that vegetation restoration had some
potential to increase SOC and TN sequestration in the wind and water
erosion transitional belt of the Loess Plateau of China. The performance
of different vegetation restoration types varied. Compared with millet
(MIL), Korshinsk Peashrub (KOP) signicantly increased both concentration and stock of SOC and TN throughout the entire 0100 cm prole;
however, purple alfalfa (ALF) and fallow for natural vegetation recovery
(NAF) did not show direct signicant improvements on SOC and TN. The
results suggested that KOP was more favorable than ALF and NAF for
SOC and TN sequestration in this transitional area. The distribution of
SOC and TN from ALF and NAF did not display a down slope
accumulation trend. This indicated that ALF and NAF had a potential
for preventing further SOC and TN losses induced by erosion. Therefore,
even though there is a chance that ALF and NAF will not increase SOC
and TN directly over a longer time scale (this needs to be veried in
future) we still assume that ALF and NAF can increase SOC and TN
indirectly via reduction of soil erosion.
Acknowledgements
Financial support for this research came from the National Key
Basic Research Project (2007CB106803), the Natural Science Foundations of China (40801111), innovation team project of Chinese
Academy of Sciences, and West Light Foundation of Chinese Academy
of Sciences. We thank Dr. John Zhang for his constructive suggestions,
and Qian Zhang and Yong Li for their assistance with eld sampling
and laboratory measurements.

35

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