Soil organic carbon (SOC) enrichment in aeolian sediments and SOC loss by dust emission in the desert steppe, China

Highlights: • The distribution of SOC contents across soil particle size groups is inconstant; • The mechanisms of SOC enrichment in aeolian sediment was revealed. • We proposed a precise method to calculate the SOC content in aeolian sediment; • This study improved the accuracy of the estimation of SOC loss induced by wind erosion. Dust emission is an important mechanism for carbon exchange between terrestrial and atmospheric carbon pools. However, undetermined soil organic carbon (SOC) enrichment in aeolian sediment limits the accurate estimation of SOC loss induced by wind erosion. Herein, we examined wind erosion and SOC loss measurements in the desert steppe of Inner Mongolia, China. By testing the particle size distributions (PSDs) and SOC contents across different particle size groups of the soil samples and aeolian sediments, we found that the finer soil particles generally had higher SOC contents. According to the measured results, we recognized that the mechanism of SOC enrichment in aeolian sediment is the inconstant distribution of SOC across the different soil particle size groups and the differences between the PSDs of soils and aeolian sediments. Based on the mechanism, we proposed a method to calculate the SOC content in aeolian sediment, and the calculated results are highly consistent with the measured results. Compared with the previous method, our calculation method provided a more precise result. Integrating our method for estimating SOC content in dust (diameter less than 50 μm) and a dust emission model, we simulated the SOC loss induced by wind erosion in this region by a wind erosion model, and the results show SOC loss induced by dust emissions ranging from 0 to 39 g/m²/y during the period of 2001 to 2017. We believe the study method of dust SOC content calculation we proposed could be interested by the scholars in the field of carbon cycling, and the simulated results of SOC loss could provide robust data for the estimation of carbon budget in the desert steppe.