Ecological restoration enhances dryland carbon stock by reducing surface soil carbon loss due to wind erosion
Enhancing terrestrial carbon (C) stock through ecological restoration, one of the prominent approaches for natural climate solutions, is conventionally considered to be achieved through an ecological pathway, i.e., increased plant C uptake. By conducting a comprehensive regional survey of 4279 1 × 1 m<sup>2</sup> plots at 517 sites across China's drylands and a 13-y manipulative experiment in a semiarid grassland within the same region, we show that greater soil and ecosystem C stocks in restored than degraded lands result predominantly from decreased surface soil C loss via suppressed wind erosion. This biophysical pathway is always overlooked in model evaluation of land-based C mitigation strategies. Surprisingly, stimulated plant growth plays a minor role in regulating C stocks under ecological restoration. In addition, the overall enhancement of C stocks in the restored lands increases with both initial degradation intensity and restoration duration. At the national scale, the rate of soil C accumulation (7.87 Tg C y<sup>-1</sup>) due to reduced wind erosion and surface soil C loss under dryland restoration is equal to 38.8% of afforestation and 56.2% of forest protection in China. Incorporating this unique but largely missed biophysical C-conserving mechanism into land surface models will greatly improve global assessments of the potential of land restoration for mitigating climate change.
Authors
- Shilong Piao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8057-2292)
- Shuli Niu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2394-2864)
- Zhenxing Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9208-0893)
- Kesheng Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3910-1581)
- Haidao Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9214-886X)
- Songbai Hong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0450-0817)
- Shiqiang Wan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0631-1232)
- Dafeng Hui (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5284-2897)
- Jianyang Xia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5923-6665)
- Jiquan Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0761-9458)
- Ying‐Ping Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4614-6203)
- Xueli Qiu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-3115-8683)
- Min Tan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6542-0557)
- Jingyi Ru (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8675-0723)
- Yiqi Luo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4556-0218)
- Jian Song (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9957-6533)
- Jiayin Feng
- Mengmei Zheng
- Hao Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4011-5745)
- Weixing Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3432-536X)
Institutions
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (AU)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Peking University (CN)
- Cornell University (US)
- New York State College of Agriculture & Life Sciences (US)
- Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CN)
- Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (CN)
- Hebei University (CN)
- East China Normal University (CN)
- Luoyang Institute of Science and Technology (CN)
- Tennessee State University (US)
- Henan Normal University (CN)
- Michigan State University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2024-11-08
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2416281121
- Citations
- 24
- Primary Topic
- Aeolian processes and effects
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 12.37
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Peking University
- Hebei University