Search

Biological soil crusts (BSCs) are widely considered critical for soil fertility in arid ecosystems. However, how microbial communities regulate the C and N cycles during BSC succession is not well understood. We utilized GeoChip 5.0 to analyze the functional potential of bacteria and fungi involved in the C and N cycles of BSCs along a 61-year revegetation chronosequence. The normalized average signal intensities of different functional genes involved in C and N metabolism in 61-year-old BSCs were significantly different from those in younger BSCs and most functional gene subcategories and the corresponding dominant functional populations were derived from bacterial rather than fungal communities. Most C degradation genes (dominated by the starch-degrading gene amyA) were derived from Actinobacteria (mainly Streptomyces) in bacteria, but Ascomycota (mainly Aspergillus) was the key population for lignin degradation (dominated by the phenol oxidase gene) during BSC succession. N cycle genes involved in denitrification (such as narG, nirK/S, and nosZ) and N fixation (nifH) were mainly derived from Unclassified Bacteria, whereas genes involved in ammonification (ureC) were mainly derived from Streptomyces. Moreover, redundancy analysis showed that soil biogeochemical properties were closely related to bacterial and fungal functional gene structures during BSC succession. These findings indicate that bacteria play a crucial role in the regulation of C and N cycles during BSC succession in arid ecosystems, while fungi perform supplementary degradation of lignin, and these communities can successfully stimulate an increase in C and N metabolism in soil during the later successional stages of BSCs.

Vegetation and soil properties are crucial in shaping soil microbial communities. However, little is known about temporal changes in the functional structure of soil microbial communities to managed revegetation in desert ecosystems. Here, we adopted GeoChip 5.0-180 K, a functional gene array, to investigate the succession of soil microbial functional genes structure and potential across a 61-year revegetation chronosequence in the Tengger Desert, China. The abundance of bacterial, fungal and archaeal genes generally increased during succession. However, variation in α-diversity of microbial functional genes and signal intensity of most C-, N- and P-cycling related genes showed hump-shaped patterns along the successional gradient. Although microbial functional structure changed during succession, these revegetation sites shared a high percentage of functional genes and nestedness-resultant component dominantly determined β-diversity. Furthermore, microbial functional structure significantly correlated with crustal and shrub coverage, thickness and mass of crusts, soil fine particles, total C, total P and the ratios of C to N and C to P. The canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) and CCA-based variation partitioning analysis showed that environmental variables explained 56.6% and 85.3% of the variance in overall microbial functional genes, respectively. These results indicate that vegetation development, especially the colonization and development of soil crusts together with changes in soil abiotic properties, play key roles in driving the functional shifts in soil microbial community structure after desert revegetation.

Determining soil salt content (SSC) and soil surface roughness (SSR) rapidly and simply is important for various environmental and agricultural applications. Recently, increasing attention has been focused on the color analysis to detect soil properties. Based on the fact that soil attributes affect soil color, this study investigated the feasibility of utilizing digital camera observations as an alternative for SSC and SSR estimation. In this study, field measurements were first conducted in the farmlands and wastelands in the inland river basin of Northwest China, and soil photographs were captured within the random-selected spots that were sampled for SSC and SSR measurements. Then, four color components, red (R), green (G), blue (B) and gray (Gr), were extracted from the raw photograph, and the digital number (DN) value of each pixel in each color component was calculated and counted. Each number of DN value was differently correlated with SSC and SSR. To find out certain DN ranges that are mostly sensitive to the variation of SSC and SSR, the whole DN value range (0–255) was separated equably into several partitions (from 2 to 10, 16, and 32), and the pixel number of each partition were recounted while the portion of every partition was computed for all pixels in each color component. After that, soil properties and these portions of four color components were regressed by partial least squares regression to find the best partitions according to the best determining coefficient (R2) and the ratio of performance to deviation (RPD). To obtain a better fit, we trained the models based on random training dataset for 100 times. Finally, SSC inversion model was built and evaluated with the excellent accuracy (R2 = 0.90 and RPD = 3.11), and SSR model with comparatively satisfactory accuracy (R2 = 0.71 and RPD = 1.87). We conclude that it is viable to apply digital cameras to estimate SSC and SSR. Findings from this study provide a base for research that can maximize the potential of digital cameras in estimating soil attributes under field conditions.

The scarcity of knowledge on differences in the microbial assemblage between biological soil crusts (BSCs) and soil below crusts (SBCs) limits our understanding of the contribution of different layers of topsoil to desert ecosystems. This study used Illumina MiSeq sequencing to determine whether differences in bacterial communities among different types of BSCs (algae, lichen and moss dominated) are greater than those between BSCs and their corresponding underlying soils (0–5 cm) in the Gurbantunggut Desert, China. Alpha and beta diversity of bacterial communities showed that richness and diversity were greater in SBCs than in BSCs, but the absolute bacterial abundance was larger in BSCs than in soils. Differences were mainly in the phyla Cyanobacteria, Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi and Acidobacteria. Cyanobacteria were concentrated in BSCs, especially in algae‐dominated BSCs. The relative abundances of Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi and Acidobacteria in SBCs were more than twice those in BSCs, and they were also abundant in the lichen‐ and moss‐dominant crusts. The number of sample‐specific genera was larger in BSCs, but there were more shared genera among SBCs. These results, combined with the principal coordinate analysis and the predicted function profiles, showed that differences in microbial community structure and function in desert ecosystems were greatest between BSCs and the underlying soils, followed by differences among the three types of BSCs, and differences were smallest between the soils below different crusts. These differences might be closely related to the soil chemical properties, especially to pH and fertility. Our study indicated that microbial communities tended to converge in SBCs of different microhabitats. HIGHLIGHTS: We studied bacterial community composition in different types of BSCs and SBCs. Differences in bacterial community were greatest between BSCs and SBCs. BSC components contributed to small‐scale microbial heterogeneity in SBCs. Surface soil bacterial communities were strongly stratified even at the centimetre scale from BSCs.

Research on mountain ecosystem services (MES) under the influence of climate change and human activities has gradually become the focus of academic attention in recent years. Here, this study analyzes the research hotspots and frontiers of this field based on metrics including main research forces, core journals and papers, research hotspots and topics by using the methods of bibliometrics and text mining. The results revealed the following: (1) the number of papers is increasing rapidly in recent years. From 2015 to 2019, 929 papers were published, with an average of 185 papers per year. But the average cited times of those papers is declining, dropped from 6.01 in 2016 to 4.2 in 2019. The USA, UK, and China rank the top three of the number of papers. Univ Maryland, Univ Oxford and Univ Wisconsin have the greatest influence, with an average of more than 77 citations per paper; (2) The most cited journals are PNAS, WETLANDS, ECOLOGY, AND SOCIETY, which are cited 191.54, 53.91, and 40.00 respectively. Most papers were published in OA journals including SUSTAINABILITY, WATER, Forests since 2017. Ten core papers undertaking knowledge transfer in this field have been identified; (3) analysis of the keywords found a new trend of integration of natural science and humanities. In two development stages of 2000-2014 and 2015-2019, the research hotspots mainly focused on mountain water resources, forest resources, land resources and the impact of climate change and human activities, and there are obvious differences and characteristics in different stages. The hotspot worthy of attention in the near future is the assessment of mountain ecosystem services capacity and value. This is the first comprehensive visualization and analysis of the research hotspots and trends of mountain ecosystem services.

Soil seed banks may offer great potential for restoring and maintaining desert ecosystems that have been degraded by climate change and anthropogenic disturbance. However, few studies have explored the annual dynamics in the composition and relative abundance of these soil seed banks. We conducted a long-term observational study to assess the effects of environmental factors (meteorology and microtopography) and aboveground vegetation on the soil seed bank of the Tengger Desert, China. The desert seed bank was dominated by annual herbs. We found that more rainfall in the growing season increased the number of seeds in the soil seed bank, and that quadrats at relatively higher elevations had fewer seeds. The species composition had more similarity in the seed bank than in the aboveground vegetation, though the seed bank and aboveground vegetation did change synchronously due to the rapid propagation of annuals. Together, our findings suggest that the combined effects of environmental factors and plant life forms determine the species composition and size of soil seed banks in deserts. Thus, if degraded desert ecosystems are left to regenerate naturally, the lack of shrub and perennial herb seeds could crucially limit their restoration. Human intervention and management may have to be applied to enhance the seed abundance of longer-lived lifeforms in degraded deserts.

Fertilizer application to arable soils could be effective for soil nutrients. However, there are many negative effects in croplands with long-term chemical fertilizer application. Whether eco-friendly fertilizer addition could enhance soil quality and soil microbial activity has been investigated before, however, how top- and rhizosphere soil bacterial communities respond to their short-term effects is not well known. Here, we used Illumina MiSeq sequencing to determine the changes of bacterial community structure in both topsoil and rhizoshpere after one month of the addition of three different eco-friendly fertilizers&mdash, biochar (B), microbial fertilizer (MF), fertilizer synergist (FS) and selected soil base fertilizer (CK) as a control, in an irrigated agroecosystem of cabbage crop (Brassica oleracea L. var. capitata L.). The results show that three different eco-friendly fertilizers significantly enhanced cabbage growth. The Shannon and Ace indexes of the bacterial community significantly decreased under the FS treatment in both soils, but the total abundance of bacteria was maximal under the FS treatment in the topsoil and the MF treatment in the rhizosphere. The addition of the three fertilizers led to significant differences in the relative abundance of bacteria community at the phylum level, such as Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Rokubacteria and Planctomycetes in the topsoil, and Chloroflexi, Actinobacteria, Firmicutes and Rokubacteria in the rhizosphere. The same phylum showed the inconsistent changes under different fertilizer treatments in both topsoil and rhizosphere. The dominant genera, i.e., Nitrosospira and Massilia in the topsoil, and Flavobacterium, Nitrosospira and Pseudomonas in the rhizosphere, were much higher under the FS treatment than others. Redundancy analysis showed that total nitrogen and available phosphorus were the key factors that shaped the bacterial community in this ecosystem. These results highlighted that the short-term addition of eco-friendly fertilizer had an improvement effect on the quality of both topsoil and rhizosphere in croplands with long-term chemical fertilizer application.

Biological soil crusts (BSCs), the pioneers of restoration of degraded vegetation, act as an organizing principle in drylands largely through metabolic activities of microbial communities. However, little is known about the microbial functional potential involved in biogeochemical processes during BSC succession in desert ecosystems. Here, we utilized a functional gene array (GeoChip 5.0) in conjunction with determinants of microbial community compositions of BSCs along a revegetation chronosequence in the Tengger Desert, to address the following: (a) how the functional structure of the microbial community changes with BSC age in different soils and (b) how genes involved in carbon (C)- and nitrogen (N)-cycling change and whether they promoted an increased microbial metabolic potential during BSC succession in desert revegetation. The results showed that the relative abundance of functional genes was determined by the microbial community compositions in the BSC development process, and the significant differences in microbial functional genes were detected in 61-year-old BSCs from other aged BSCs. Redundancy analysis indicated that the abundance of fungi and moss and soil physicochemical properties were the important factors determining differences in microbial functional structures. Functional genes associated with C degradation and N denitrification were the major components involved in C and N cycles, which were closely related to the increased fungal abundance during succession. The increased gene abundance of 61-year-old BSCs in both C and N cycles promoted microbial metabolic potential. These results indicated that fungi might be the key microbial mediators in C and N cycling in the later development of BSCs, and microbial functional structure could be a potential indicator of revegetation sustainability in desert ecosystems.

Iron (Fe) is an essential element for almost all living organisms. In addition, microbial Fe cycling drives the biogeochemical cycles of other elements, although little is known about characteristics of Fe cycling and its driving mechanism in desert ecosystems. Here, we investigated the key microbial functional genes involved in Fe(II) oxidation and Fe(III) reduction and the associated factors affecting the soil during the development of biological soil crusts (BSCs), which are among the most important landscapes in desert ecosystems. We also analyzed the relationships among the genes involved in Fe, carbon (C), and nitrogen (N) cycling. The available Fe content and diversity of genes associated with microbial Fe cycling increased after 61 years of BSC development. Our results suggested that Fe(II) oxidation in BSCs is mainly driven by the iro gene from microaerophilic Fe oxidizing microorganisms (FeOMs), whereas Fe(III) reduction is driven mainly by c-type cytochromes through regulation by the OmcS gene. The presence of both genes significantly correlated with that of genes involved in labile organic C degradation, denitrification, and N reduction. Fungal abundance, soil nutrient content (mainly total N), and the Fe-manganese (Mn) oxide-bound fraction (RED-Fe) were the main soil factors affecting the gene profile associated with microbial Fe cycling in BSCs (explaining 74.8% of the variation). These results indicated that the main Fe cycling process in desert ecosystems can adapt to the local environment. Furthermore, the interaction between Fe and the C or N cycles, as well as the synergistic effects of soil quality improvement, actively promotes effective and dynamic Fe cycling in BSCs.

Agricultural reclamation via the conversion of desert into cropland offers a strategy to utilize arid lands and combat desertification. However, limited irrigation water resources have forced the abandonment of reclaimed agricultural lands and succession towards unmanaged natural states, which may contribute greatly to erosion potential. Soil microorganisms can affect the degradation and wind erosion potential of soils in the desert region by mediating many ecological processes. However, little is known about how soil microbial community structures respond to desert agricultural reclamation with tillage-based farming and subsequential abandonment. Using quantitative PCR (qPCR) and 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing approaches, we investigated the changes of bacterial, archaeal and fungal community biomasses, diversities and structures in a desert farmland soil (FS). We contrasted these to soils along a 10-year farming abandonment chronosequence (2-year, 5-year and 10-year) and with adjacent soil from a native desert (control) in the Badain Jaran desert, China. Soil bacterial and archaeal community biomasses significantly increased after reclamation compared with the control and generally decreased after farming abandonment. Species richness of communities decreased for archaea and increased for fungi in response to reclamation, whereas bacterial community species richness increased during the 5-year abandonment. Microbial community structures were divergent in reclaimed and abandoned soils and were closely related to soil moisture, total carbon (C), total nitrogen (N), available phosphorus (P) and the stoichiometry of C, N and P, which explained 24.4–89.0% of their variations. Our results indicate desert soil microbial biomass, diversity and compositions differently responded to agricultural reclamation and abandonment with some irreversible changes in compositions mainly driven by soil moisture and chemical properties changes. The insights are meaningful for sustainable development of agriculture and ethical land management in arid desert regions.

Microbial communities play a very important role in soil ecological processes by regulating biogeochemical cycles during biological soil crust (BSC) succession in desert ecosystems. Although the relationships between microbial carbon or nitrogen and the BSC at different successional stages have been a source of great concern, there are few reports regarding the phosphorus (P) and sulfur (S) cycles. In this study, we used a functional gene array (GeoChip 5.0) to analyze the characteristics of microbial communities and their functional genes involved in the P and S cycles along a chronosequence of BSC succession in the Tengger Desert, China. The results showed that the functional genes associated with polyphosphate degradation and sulfite reduction were the major components involved in the P and S cycles, respectively, and the intensities of the functional genes expression involved in the P and S cycles increased significantly in 61-year-old BSCs. Compared with the fungal and archaeal communities, the bacterial community was the major contributor to the P and S cycles, and Proteobacteria (mainly Alphaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, and Betaproteobacteria) and Actinobacteria were the dominant phyla. A redundancy analysis showed that there was significant synergy between the improvement in soil properties (e.g., soil nutrient content) and the intensities of genes expression related to P and S cycles. These findings indicated that after 61 years, BSC significantly promoted the microbial metabolic potential for P and S cycling, which in turn promoted soil rehabilitation in a desertified dryland.

Despite the important role of biological soil crusts in desert ecosystems, the responses of the crustal composition and distribution to changes in both climatic and edaphic factors at different spatial scales are not well understood. The goal of our research was to study the drivers of crustal community diversity at different scales, determine how crustal diversity and distribution patterns are related to abiotic and biotic factors, and identify the characteristics of crustal communities along a precipitation gradient. We investigated the distribution and characteristics of crustal communities based on 457 soil samples that were randomly collected from six desert regions of northern China. These regions represent a precipitation gradient from 450 mm in the east to 80–100 mm in the west. The measured environmental variables included soil moisture, pH, clay and silt content, soil organic carbon (SOC), total N, total P, total K, CaCO3 content, annual and perennial plant cover and crustal variables, including species richness, crustal cover and biomass. An ANOVA analysis, a stepwise regression and a redundancy analysis were used to analyse and interpret the response of biological soil crusts to environmental factors at two spatial scales. Our results showed that the moss distribution and biomass were strongly related to the topsoil moisture content. The highest diversity of cyanobacteria and algae was observed at sites with relatively dry topsoil, and lichen diversity was promoted at sites with fine-textured soils. In addition, the cover and biomass of moss were positively correlated with perennial plant cover and higher topsoil moisture, which was expected because plant cover provides shade for the moss. The cover and biomass of lichens, cyanobacteria and algae were positively correlated with that of annual plants because these plants may create an ideal habitat and provide nutrients. The physiochemical properties of the topsoil greatly influenced the distribution pattern of the crustal communities at the regional scale. The species richness and biomass of the crustal mosses were positively correlated with precipitation, whereas the species richness and biomass of cyanobacteria and algae were negatively correlated with precipitation at the landscape scale. Rainfall largely determined the species richness and cover of the crustal cyanobacteria and mosses, whereas soil properties had a greater impact on the crustal lichens. Future changes to rainfall regimes could result in the conversion of biological soil crusts and further contribute to changes in the structure and functioning of desert ecosystems.

Little is known about the impacts of climate change especially for cooling on N2O emissions from alpine meadows on the Tibetan Plateau. Along a slope of Qilian mountains, China, we transferred intact soil cores covering different vegetation types (graminoid, shrub, forb, and sparse vegetation) downhill (warming) and uphill (cooling) across a 600-m elevation gradient to examine the responses of soil-atmosphere N2O exchange rates to climate warming and cooling. N2O fluxes were measured during two growing seasons from May to October in 2008 and 2009. The Tibetan alpine meadow acted as a net N2O source at an average rate of 5.2 μg m−2 h−1 (ranging from 2.0 to 11.5 μg m−2 h−1). In situ N2O emission generally decreased with elevation increase except for sparse vegetation, but significant differences were only found between graminoid and other three vegetations in 2008 and between graminoid and shrub vegetation in 2009. Warming averagely increased mean N2O fluxes by 219% (ranging from 126 to 287%) while cooling decreased it by 75% (ranging from 57 to 95%) across four vegetation types over the variation of soil temperature from 1.3 to 5.5 °C. However, opposite effects were also observed in some cases due to modification of variations in soil moisture. Soil temperature and moisture had a positive effect on N2O fluxes and explained 48 and 26% of the variation in mean N2O fluxes across the four vegetation types, respectively. No relationship was found between mean N2O fluxes and aboveground biomass. Our results suggest that more N2O-N would be released from soil in a warmer future and that less N2O emission during cool and dry years is expected in the Tibetan alpine meadow.

The development of shrub allometric models is crucial for accurate biomass assessment, as well as for scientific studies of carbon storage and carbon cycling of desert ecosystems. The aim of the present study was to construct allometric models to predict biomass using easily measured variables for xerophytic shrubs. The 12 most widespread shrub species of northern China were selected and a total of 385 individuals were harvested to obtain the weight of its components (leaves, twigs, branches, and roots), the crown area (CA) and plant height (H). Based on a high coefficient of determination (R2), a low standard error of estimate (SEE), and low Akaike information criterion (AIC) values, 72 species-specific and 24 multispecies models with CA and H as independent variables were developed. The function lnW (biomass of different components) = a + b × lnX (predictor variable) was selected as optimal model. CA was revealed as the best independent variable for the biomass of leaves and twigs, and V (CA × H...

In arid and semi-arid desert ecosystems, physical, chemical, and vegetative measures were used to prevent wind erosion. However, studies on the utilization of microbial resources for sand fixation are still limited. To fill this gap, a new strain of Bacillus tequilensis CGMCC 17603 with high productivity of exopolysaccharide (EPS) was isolated from biological soil crusts, and its high-density culture technology and sand-fixing ability were studied. The one-factor-at-a-time approach (OFAT) and Box&ndash, Behnken design of CGMCC 17603 showed that the optimum culture conditions were pH 8.5, temperature 31 &deg, C, agitation speed 230 rpm, and inoculation quantity 3%, and the optimum medium was 27.25 g/L glucose, 15.90 g/L yeast extract, and 5.61 g/L MgSO4&bull, 7H2O. High-density culture showed that the biomass and EPS yield of CGMCC 17603 increased from 9.62 &times, 107 to 2.33 &times, 109 CFU/mL, and from 8.01 to 15.61 g/L, respectively. The field experiments showed that CGMCC 17603 could effectively improve the ability of sand fixation and wind prevention. These results indicated that B. tequilensis, first isolated from cyanobacterial crusts, can be considered as an ideal soil-fixing agent to combat desertification in arid and semi-arid areas.

The importance of soil microbial flora in agro-ecosystems is well known, but there is limited understanding of the effects of long-term fertilization on soil microbial community succession in different farming management practices. Here, we report the responses of soil microbial community structure, abundance and activity to chemical (CF) and organic fertilization (OF) treatments in a sandy agricultural system of wheat-maize rotation over a 17-year period. Illumina MiSeq sequencing showed that the microbial community diversity and richness showed no significant changes in bacteria but decreased in fungi under both CF and OF treatments. The dominant species showing significant differences between fertilization regimes were Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria and Ascomycota at the phylum level, as well as some unclassified genera of other phyla at the genus level. As expected, soil organic matter content, nutrient element concentrations and bacterial abundance were enhanced by both types of fertilization, especially in OF, but fungal abundance was inhibited by OF. Redundancy analysis revealed that soil enzyme activities were closely related to both bacterial and fungal communities, and the soil nutrient, texture and pH value together determined the community structures. Bacterial abundance might be the primary driver of crop yield, and soil enzyme activities may reflect crop yield. Our results suggest a relatively permanent response of soil microbial communities to the long-term fertilization regimes in a reclaimed sandy agro-ecosystem from a mobile dune, and indicate that the appropriate dosage of chemical fertilizers is beneficial to sandy soil sustainability.

Purpose Changes in bioactive soil C pools and their temperature sensitivities will dominate the fate of soil organic C in a warmer future, which is not well understood in highland ecosystems. This study was conducted in order to evaluate climate change, especially cooling effects, on soil labile organic C (LOC) pools in a Tibetan alpine meadow.

Development of community compositional and functional gene structure of fungi in biological soil crusts (BSCs) of different successional stages in the Tengger Desert, China, was assessed using Illumina MiSeq sequencing and GeoChip analysis, respectively. Fungal diversity and abundance significantly increased during 60 years of succession, and reached close to the highest level in the late BSC development, corresponding to those in natural habitats. Principal coordinate analysis showed that the BSC fungal communities in 60-year-old revegetation and natural vegetation clustered together, when compared with short-term revegetation. Furthermore, the diversity and relative abundance of fungal functional genes involved in biogeochemical cycling and stress response in dominant phyla reached the highest level after 60 years of BSC development, indicating that this period is an important landmark for fungal community and function. Higher functional and compositional resilience in 60-year-old BSCs implied a higher level of stability of the aggregated BSC ecosystem functions. Thus, the stability of BSC ecosystems could be estimated indirectly based on the development of fungal community, and at least 60 years might be needed for the steady state of BSCs in temperate desert zones without mechanical disturbance.

Reconstructing vegetation in arid and semiarid areas has become an increasingly important management strategy to realize habitat recovery, mitigate desertification and global climate change. To assess the carbon sequestration potential in areas where sand-binding vegetation has been established on shifting sand dunes by planting xeric shrubs located near the southeastern edge of the Tengger Desert in northern China, we conducted a field investigation of restored dune regions that were established at different times (20, 30, 47, and 55 years ago) in the same area. We quantified the total organic carbon (TOC) in each ecosystem by summing the individual carbon contributions from the soil (soil organic carbon; SOC), shrubs, and grasses in each system. We found that the TOC, as well as the amount of organic carbon in the soil, shrubs, and grasses, significantly increased over time in the restored areas. The average annual rate of carbon sequestration was highest in the first 20 years after restoration (3.26 × 10(-2)kg·m(-2) ·year(-1)), and reached a stable rate (2.14 × 10(-2) kg·m(-2) ·year(-1)) after 47 years. Organic carbon storage in soil represented the largest carbon pool for both restored systems and a system containing native vegetation, accounting for 67.6%-85.0% of the TOC. Carbon in grass root biomass, aboveground grass biomass, litter, aboveground shrub biomass, and shrub root biomass account for 10.0%-21.0%, 0.2%-0.6%, 0.1%-0.2%, 1.7%-12.1% and 0.9%-6.2% of the TOC, respectively. Furthermore, we found that the 55-year-old restored system has the capacity to accumulate more TOC (1.02 kg·m(-2) more) to reach the TOC level found in the natural vegetation system. These results suggest that restoring desert ecosystems may be a cost-effective and environmentally friendly way to sequester CO2 from the atmosphere and mitigate the effects of global climate change.