Dynamics of Soil Carbon Stock in Response to Land Use Conversion in European Woodland and Shrubland in the Last Decade

Abstract

Soil carbon sequestration and its monitoring is important to improve climate resilience and mitigate global warming. According to the European Environment Agency (EEA), soils in Europe are losing carbon that could hamper achieving the EU climate targets. Hence, it is necessary to explore the dynamics of soil organic carbon (SOC) storage in different ecosystems so that the EU policymakers can observe the progress towards achieving EU Green Deal objectives. The aim of this research was to quantify the Delta SOC-S in woodland and shrubland in the last decade (2009-2018) and to study the Delta SOC-S due to the land use conversion. In this regard, revisited sampling points between 2009 and 2018 from the topsoil (0-20 cm) of woodland and shrubland of the EU + UK soil database named Land Use/Land Cover Area Frame Survey (LUCAS) was used. The analysis revealed that broadleaved-woodland to coniferous- or mixed-woodland conversion in 2018, and shrubland to woodland conversion in 2015 increased SOC-S. Overall, we found a net accumulation of SOC-S in woodland (2184.08 ton ha(-1)) and shrubland (302.78 ton ha(-1)) soil with 7.78% increment in woodland and 12.56% in shrubland between 2009/12 and 2018. Also, in central Europe, mean annual temperature (MAT) increased and precipitation (MAP) decreased between the study periods. The relationship between precipitation and temperature showed that precipitation and SOC-S in woodland had no relationship, but with the rising temperature, SOC-S in both land types significantly decreased revealing warming can significantly affect SOC-S.