Large soil organic carbon increase due to improved agronomic management in the North China Plain from 1980s to 2010s

Agricultural soils are widely recognized to be capable of carbon sequestration that contributes to mitigating CO2 emissions. To better understand soil organic carbon (SOC) stock dynamics and its driving and controlling factors corresponding with a period of rapid agronomic evolution from the 1980s to the 2010s in the North China Plain (NCP), we collected data from two region-wide soil sampling campaigns (in the 1980s and 2010s) and conducted an analysis of the controlling factors using the random forest model. Between the 1980s and 2010s, environmental (i.e. soil salinity/fertility) and societal (i.e. policy/techniques) factors both contributed to adoption of new management practices (i.e. chemical fertilizer application/mechanization). Results of our work indicate that SOC stocks in the NCP croplands increased significantly, which also closely related to soil total nitrogen changes. Samples collected near the surface (0-20 cm) and deeper (20-40 cm) both increased by an average of 9.4 and 5.1 Mg C ha(-1), respectively, which are equivalent to increases of 73% and 56% compared with initial SOC stocks in the 1980s. The annual carbon sequestration amount in surface soils reached 10.9 TgC year(-1), which contributed an estimated 43% of total carbon sequestration in all of China's cropland on just 27% of its area. Successful desalinization and the subsequent increases in carbon (C) inputs, induced by agricultural projects and policies intended to support crop production (i.e. reconstruction of low yield farmland, and agricultural subsidies), combined with improved cultivation practices (i.e. fertilization and straw return) since the early 1980s were the main drivers for the SOC stock increase. This study suggests that rehabilitation of NCP soils to reduce salinity and increase crop yields have also served as a pathway for substantial soil C sequestration.