Concentration and stock of carbon in the soils affected by land uses and climates in the western Himalaya, India

Soils are the third biggest sink of carbon on the earth. Hence, suitable land uses for a climatic condition are expected to sequester optimum atmospheric carbon in soils. But, information on how climatic conditions and land uses influence carbon accumulation in the soils on the Himalayan Mountains is not known. This study reports the impact of four climatic conditions (sub-tropical, altitude: 500–1200 m; temperate 1200–2000 m; lower alpine 2000–3000 m; upper alpine, 3000–3500 m) and four land uses (forest, grassland, horticulture, agriculture) on the concentrations and stocks of soil organic carbon (SOC) in upper (0–30 cm) and deeper (30–100 cm) soil depths on the western Himalayan Mountains of India. The study also explored the drivers which influenced the SOC stock build up on the mountains. Rainfall and soil moisture showed quadratic relations, whereas temperature declined linearly with the altitude. SOC stock as well as concentration was the highest (101.8 Mg ha− 1 in 0–30 cm, 227.97 Mg ha− 1 in 0–100 cm) in temperate and the lowest in sub-tropical climate (37 Mg ha− 1 in 0–30 cm, 107.04 Mg ha− 1 in 0–100 cm). Pattern of SOC stock build up across the altitude was: temperate > lower alpine > upper alpine > sub-tropical. SOC stocks in all land uses across the climatic conditions, except agriculture in lower alpine, was higher (0.7 to 41.6%) in the deeper than upper soil depth. SOC stocks in both the depths showed quadratic relations with soil temperature and soil moisture. Other factors like fine soil particles, land-use factor and altitude influenced positively whereas slope and pH, negatively to the SOC stocks. In all climatic conditions, other than temperate, SOC stocks were greater in natural ecosystems like forests and pastures (112.5 to 247.5 Mg ha− 1) than agriculture (63 to 120.4 Mg ha− 1). In temperate climate, SOC stock in agriculture (253.6 Mg ha− 1) on well formed terraces was a little higher than forest (231.3 Mg ha− 1) on natural slope. These observations, suggest that land uses on temperate climate may be treated as potential sinks for sequestration of the atmospheric carbon. However, agriculture in subtropical climate need to be pursued with due SOC protection measures like the temperate climate for greater sequestration of the atmospheric carbon.

Research highlights
► The study addresses soil organic carbon (SOC) stock in different land-uses and climatic conditions.
► Pattern of SOC stock build up across the altitude was: temperate>lower alpine>upper alpine>sub-tropical.
► SOC stock in different soil depths showed quadratic relations with soil temperature, and soil moisture.
► SOC stock were greater in natural ecosystems like forests and pastures than agriculture.