Organic carbon stocks of agricultural soils in the suburban area of Baoji city, China

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is an important component of the global carbon cycle, and it has direct effects on the global carbon balance. Land use, cultivation, crop selection, and other anthropogenic activities could all affect the dynamics of SOC pool. The effects of land use change on soil carbon stocks are of concern in the context of international policy agendas on greenhouse gas emission mitigation. In the suburban of Baoji city, land use has been roughly changed by urbanization with rapid economic development. In our experiment SOC content in vegetable plot, wheat field, peach orchard and grassland in the suburban of Baoji city were investigated. The SOC content was wheat field >; peach orchard >; grassland >; vegetable plot ranked in descendent order; SOC contents at comparable soil depths generally tended to be higher under winter wheat fields than those under peach orchards, vegetable plots and grassland. Meanwhile, effects of land use on the vertical distribution of SOC contents varied with soil depth under peach orchards, vegetable plots and grasslands except for winter wheat fields.