Organic carbon sequestration in Chinese croplands under compost application and its contribution to carbon neutrality

Achieving the carbon neutrality in China has great impact on alleviating global warming. Compost application, an important measure to promote soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration, has been practiced in China since 2015. However, it is still unclear how much carbon can be fixed by cropland soil under compost application in the whole China. China has pledged to strive for the goal of carbon neutrality by 2060, which brought two issues: whether compost application can consistently promote SOC sequestration until 2060, and how much contribution it can make to the carbon neutrality. In the present study, we analyzed the results from 93 literatures to determine the SOC sequestration under compost application in the different agricultural divisions of China. Results showed that there were regional differences in the effect of compost application on SOC sequestration. The annual SOC sequestration in Northern China (NC) and Gansu + Xinjiang (GX) was significantly high than other regions. In addition, the annual SOC sequestration was negatively related to the duration of the experiment, while the accumulative SOC sequestration during the experimental period increased with the increase of the duration. According to our results, the total SOC sequestration in topsoil of Chinese cropland was 85 Tg C year−1 under compost application, which will make a 4.4% contribution to carbon neutrality during 2021–2060. In conclusion, cropland soil in China can still sequester carbon for more than 35 years under compost application. Thus, abidingly promoting compost application in China is crucial to accomplishing the carbon neutrality goal.