Global patterns and determinants of erosion-induced soil carbon translocation

Abstract

Soil erosion is a critical process influencing the global carbon cycle. However, erosion-induced carbon changes remain inadequately understood, particularly for soil inorganic carbon (SIC). There is also limited knowledge about the factors influencing soil carbon dynamics during erosion processes. Here we quantify the global translocation of soil organic carbon (SOC) and SIC due to soil erosion using data-driven global soil carbon estimates combined with a soil erosion map derived from the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model. Our analysis reveals that global SIC and SOC translocations from soil erosion are 107.1 Tg C yr⁻¹ and 898.4 Tg C yr⁻¹, respectively. These translocations exhibit distinct patterns across aridity gradients and different biomes and soil types, with SIC translocation increasing while SOC translocation decreasing with aridity. Croplands exhibit significantly higher soil carbon translocation compared to natural vegetation, with SIC translocation being 2.41 times higher and SOC translocation 0.65 times higher than in forests. Topographic features (slope length and steepness) predominantly determine soil carbon translocation during erosion, with steeper and longer slopes exacerbating erosion and subsequent SIC/SOC translocation. Land use change, particularly agricultural practices, is also a critical driver. Our findings provide valuable insights into the factors influencing SIC and SOC translocation, enhancing our understanding of the global patterns and determinants of erosion-induced soil carbon dynamics.

Keywords

Soil organic carbon / Soil inorganic carbon / Soil erosion / Soil carbon translocation / Soil carbon loss

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Fangli Wei: Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Formal analysis, Conceptualization. Lanhui Wang: Writing – review & editing, Methodology. Lizhi Jia: Writing – review & editing. Yuanyuan Huang: Writing – review & editing, Supervision, Conceptualization.

Declaration of competing interests

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Data Availability

The data and code used in this manuscript are openly accessible, with relevant links provided in Section 2 Materials and Methods.

Acknowledgments

This research is jointly funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Project (Grants No. 42494823 and 42301108) and the Young Elite Scientists Sponsorship Program by CAST (Grant No. 07M715BOAM). L.W. considers this work a contribution to his Carlsberg Foundation Internationalisation Fellowship project (Grant No. CF21–0157).

Supplementary materials

Supplementary material associated with this article can be found, in the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.geosus.2025.100328.

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