Dynamics of soil organic carbon stock in a typical catchment of the Loess Plateau: comparison of model simulations with measurements

Land use changes are known to significantly affect the soil C balance by altering both C inputs and losses. Since the late 1990s, a large area of the Loess Plateau has undergone intensive land use changes during several ecological restoration projects to control soil erosion and combat land degradation, especially in the Grain for Green project. By using remote sensing techniques and the Yasso07 model, we simulated the dynamics of soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks in the Yangjuangou catchment of the Loess Plateau. The performance of the model was evaluated by comparing the simulated results with the intensive field measurements in 2006 and 2011 throughout the catchment. SOC stocks and NPP values of all land use types had generally increased during our study period. The average SOC sequestration rate in the upper 30 cm soil from 2006 to 2011 in the Yangjuangou catchment was approximately 44 g C m−2 yr−1, which was comparable to other studies in the Loess Plateau. Forest and grassland showed a more effective accumulation of SOC than the other land use types in our study area. The Yasso07 model performed reasonably well in predicting the overall dynamics of SOC stock for different land use change types at both the site and catchment scales. The assessment of the model performance indicated that the combination of Yasso07 model and remote sensing data could be used for simulating the effect of land use changes on SOC stock at catchment scale in the Loess Plateau.