Spatiotemporal variations and driving factors of farmland soil organic carbon in various landforms of a complex topography

Estimating the spatiotemporal variations and driving factors of farmland soil organic carbon density (SOCD) is of great significance for enhancing soil carbon sequestration capacity. Herein, a large region of complex topography was targeted, which includes hill–mountain, valley–basin, and plain–platform. Based on the massive amounts of sampling data (57,254 measured values) and a large-scale soil map of 1:10,000 (371,976 polygonal patches), the gravity center migration model and gray correlation model were used to quantify the spatiotemporal variations and driving factors of farmland SOCD. The results indicated that the farmland soils in the study area had dual functions of carbon source and sink during 1982–2018, of which 45.50 % and 54.50 % were identified as carbon source and sink, respectively. Specifically, the SOCD for the entire study area, its hill–mountain, and valley–basin increased from 2.79 kg m⁻², 2.97 kg m⁻², and 3.06 kg m⁻² to 2.87 kg m⁻², 3.06 kg m⁻², and 3.14 kg m⁻², respectively, with 0.08 kg m⁻² carbon sequestrations and a northeast migration direction for the SOCD gravity center (angle: 21.94°, 23.56°, and 18.82°; distance: 1.56 km, 2.73 km, and 3.20 km). There was a smaller increase of 0.07 kg m⁻² in SOCD for the plain–platform from 2.38 kg m⁻² (1982) to 2.45 kg m⁻² (2018), and the SOCD gravity center migrated to the southwest with an angle of −172.46° and a distance of 1.84 km. Thus, the spatiotemporal variations of farmland SOCD in various landforms varied greatly. Over the past 36 years, SOCD variations were driven by a combination of intrinsic soil factors and external factors such as human disturbance. However, the driving effects of these factors on the landforms of hill–mountain, valley–basin, and plain–platform were quite different in size and order. Therefore, we suggest that topography must be considered when formulating policies to improve soil carbon sequestration, and priority should be given to landform-specific SOCD variation and the factors contributing to them.