Carbon storage change after marshland conversion to cropland in Northeast China

Background/Question/Methods

About 20-25% of the global soil organic carbon is stored in wetlands, although natural wetlands occupy only 5-8% of the earth's land area. Previous interests in carbon trading had further stimulated the research on the comparative abilities of ecosystem types to store carbon. Furthermore, many studies focused on carbon storage of the single ecosystems. However, there is little specific quantitative information available based on regional scale related to specific types of land use conversion. Changes in land use pattern result in wetland loss which further influence soils carbon storage. Based on changes of Landsat TM land use data and modeling methodology, the change of carbon storage of the marshland before conversion and the marshland conversion to cropland could be estimated. 

Results/Conclusions

Results showed that the area of marshland conversion to cropland was up to 54.8% of the original marshland area compared 1982 to 2010. This study indicated that the carbon storage of marshland was 181.75×10⁶ t CO₂-C equivalent and that of cropland convered from marshland was 115.40×10⁶ t CO₂-C equivalent. So it demonstrated that the marshland conversion to cropland would lead to 66.35×10⁶ t CO₂-C equivalent of carbon storage loss. In other words, this conversion led to 36.5% carbon storage loss and also expanded the greenhouse effects.