Soil organic carbon storage capacity positively related to forest succession on the Loess Plateau, China

•Revegetation is recognized as one of the primary contributors to carbon sink.•We examine the effects of long-term revegetation on C stock in soil.•C sequestration mainly occur in lower soil after abandoned farmland.

Land-use change resulting from natural restoration probably enhances the carbon sequestration capacity of terrestrial ecosystems. To explore those factors which foster changes in the soil carbon pool in forest restoration, a study comparing soil organic carbon at different vegetation succession stages along a 150-year chronosequence was conducted in the Ziwuling forest region located in the central part of the Loess Plateau, China. It showed that in long-term (~ 150 yr) secondary forest succession the soil organic carbon storage (Cs), soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), and C/N ratio all increased rapidly and tended to be at their highest at roughly the 50-year restoration mark. From this point onward the values gradually stabilized indicating that the SOC and the TN accumulated mainly in the early restoration stages. The Cs was significantly and positively correlated with the SOC, the TN, and the C/N ratio (P < 0.01). The Cs in the soil was higher in the upper rather than the lower soil layers. However, the increments of the Cs mainly changed in the lower soil layers. Soil water storage was not the key factor influencing the Cs. The results suggested that changes to the Cs were the result of the accumulation of the SOC and the TN during forest succession and this capacity has shown to be positively related to forest succession on the Loess Plateau, China.