New paper: Legacy of land-use change

Using data and compiled historical land-use histories for the 3104 sites of the German Agricultural Soil Inventory we investigated how converting grasslands to croplands, or vice-versa, alters organic carbon stocks in soils. We found that soils in sites converted from grassland to cropland continued to lose organic carbon for 180 years (-33.6 % loss), while soils in sites converted from cropland to grassland continued to gain carbon for about 80 years (47.3 % gain). Consequently, even long-standing agricultural sites are likely to have ongoing soil organic carbon change as a result of historic land-use change. It follows that historical land-use change constitutes an environmentally and economically relevant C sink or source and ought to be considered when monitoring and reporting present day SOC dynamics.

https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.17444