The Effect of Afforestation on Soil Moisture Content in Northeastern China

Widespread afforestation programs sequester carbon from the atmosphere and mitigate the rising of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). Meanwhile, afforestation carbon sequestration may cost soil water. However, changes in soil moisture content (SMC) after large-scale afforestation or reforestation have...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2016-08, Vol.11 (8), p.e0160776-e0160776
Main Authors: Yao, Yitong, Wang, Xuhui, Zeng, Zhenzhong, Liu, Yongwen, Peng, Shushi, Zhu, Zaichun, Piao, Shilong
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Afforestation
Afforestation effects
Analysis
Atmospheric carbon dioxide
Biology and Life Sciences
Carbon - analysis
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide atmospheric concentrations
Carbon sequestration
China
Drought
Earth Sciences
Ecology and Environmental Sciences
Ecosystem
Engineering and Technology
Environmental aspects
Environmental Restoration and Remediation - methods
Environmental science
Forestry - methods
Forests
Hydrologic cycle
Hydrology
Influence
Moisture content
People and Places
Physiology
Pine trees
Pinus sylvestris
Pinus sylvestris mongolica
Plantations
Populus
Precipitation
Rain
Reforestation
Soil - chemistry
Soil hydrology
Soil moisture
Soil moisture content
Soil profiles
Soil water
Splitting
Studies
Trees
Vegetation
Water - metabolism
Water shortages
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Summary:Widespread afforestation programs sequester carbon from the atmosphere and mitigate the rising of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). Meanwhile, afforestation carbon sequestration may cost soil water. However, changes in soil moisture content (SMC) after large-scale afforestation or reforestation have rarely been quantified. In this study, we measured changes in SMC following afforestation using a paired plots method with data from 757 plots in Northeastern China. We found a marginally significant decline in soil moisture content of the top 1-m soil (SMC0-1m) after afforestation (P = 0.08) at the regional scale. The SMC responses to afforestation also vary across species. For example, significant SMC decrease are found for Populus spp. plantations (P < 0.05) and plantations of Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica (P < 0.05). Splitting the first meter of the soil profile into different depth intervals revealed that SMC declined significantly in shallow layers (0-30 cm) for Populus spp. and Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica. We also found that when SMC in the control exceeded a specific threshold, SMC for all five tree species considered tended to decrease, suggesting that the effects of afforestation on soil hydrology vary across different regions.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0160776