Soil carbon storage and its determinants in the forests of Shaanxi Province,China

Aims The bank of soil carbon of forests plays an important role in the global carbon cycle. Our aim is to understand the characteristics of soil carbon storage and its determinants in the forests in Shaanxi Province.Methods The data of forest inventory in 2009 and resampling in 2011 were used to analyze the characteristics of soil carbon storage and its determinants in the forest soil in Shaanxi Province.Important findings The soil carbon storage in the forests in Shaanxi Province was 579.68 Tg. Soil carbon storage of Softwood and Hardwood forests were the highest among all forest types, accounting for 36.35% of the whole province forest soil carbon storage. The forest soil carbon storage was 4.15 times greater in the natural forest (467.17 Tg) than that in the plantations. The young and middle-aged forests were the main contributors to the total carbon storage across all age groups, accounting for about 57.30% of the total forest soil carbon storage. The average soil carbon density of forests in Shaanxi Province was 90.68 t∙hm^-2, in which the soil carbon density of Betula forests was the highest (141.74 t∙hm^-2). Soil carbon density of different forest types were gradually decreased with soil depth. In addition, it was highest in middle-aged forest. Soil carbon density was higher in the natural forest ecosystems than that in the plantations within the each age group, indicating natural forest ecosystems have higher capacity of carbon sequestration. Differences in the spatial patterns between carbon storage and density indicated that carbon storage was related to forest coverage. The soil carbon density and storage of forests in Yulin were the lowest across the province. This suggests that, in order to enhance the regional carbon sequestration capacity in this region, we need to appropriately strengthen artificial afforestation activities and manage them scientifically and rationally. The soil carbon density of forests in Shaanxi Province decreased with the increase of longitude, latitude, and annual temperature, but increased with the increase of altitude and annual rainfall. This study provides data basis for provincial estimation of forest soil carbon bank in China.