Dynamics of soil organic carbon mineralization in tea plantations converted from farmland at Western Sichuan, China

Climate warming and land use change are some of the drivers affecting soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics. The Grain for Green Project, local natural resources, and geographical conditions have resulted in farmland conversion into tea plantations in the hilly region of Western Sichuan. However, the effect of such land conversion on SOC mineralization remains unknown. In order to understand the temperature sensitivity of SOC decomposition in tea plantations converted from farmland, this study considered the different years (i.e., 2–3, 9–10, and 16–17 years) of tea plantations converted from farmland as the study site, and soil was incubated for 28 days at 15°C, 25°C, and 35°C to measure the soil respiration rate, amount, and temperature coefficient (Q(10)). Temperature and land use type interactively affected the SOC mineralization rate, and the cumulative amount of SOC mineralization in all the plots was the largest at 35°C. SOC mineralization was greater and more sensitive to temperature changes in the farmland than in the tea plantations. Compared with the control, tea plantation soils showed lower SOC mineralization rate and cumulative mineralization amount. The 16–17-year-old tea plantation with a low SOC mineralization amount and high SOC content revealed the benefits of carbon sequestration enhancement obtained by converting farmland into tea plantations. The first-order kinetic equation described SOC mineralization dynamics well. Farmland conversion into tea plantations appeared to reduce the potentially mineralizable carbon pool, and the age of tea plantations also had an effect on the SOC mineralization and sequestration. The relatively weak SOC mineralization temperature sensitivity of the tea plantation soils suggested that the SOC pool of the tea plantation soils was less vulnerable to warming than that of the control soils.