Dissolved organic carbon is an important component of the carbon balance of terrestrial ecosystems and source of energy, carbon, and nutrient transfer from terrestrial to aquatic ecosystems. Land use changes caused by human activities have had major impacts on terrestrial ecosystem carbon cycles, including impacts of soil DOC dynamics. Hence, it is important to understand the impacts of land use changes on DOC for assessing the impacts of land use change on the carbon cycle. Over the last several centuries, extensive areas of native vegetation in the Liupan Mountain Forest Zone have been replaced by croplands or rangelands, whereas in recent decades former arable lands and rangelands have been afforested. However, the impacts of these land-use changes on the terrestrial ecosystem carbon cycle are unclear, especially on the soil DOC dynamics. In order to assess the impacts of land-use changes on soil DOC dynamics, we measured the concentrations of DOC in precipitation, subsurface water, soil leachate, detrital leachate solutions, throughfall, and water percolating through the soil in plots with the same elevation, exposure, and soil types but with different vegetation types. A natural secondary forest dominated by Querces liaotungensis, Populus davidiana, or brushwood, a cropland and rangeland derived from destruction of the natural secondary forests, and a 13, 18 and 25 year old larch plantation, Larix principis-rupprechtii, afforested on former croplands or rangelands were studied.
Our results showed that concentrations of DOC in precipitation and subsurface water from May to October was 0.80 -1.60 mg·L^-1 and 2.43-7.66 mg·L^-1, respectively. From September to October, the concentration of DOC in throughfall was 1.78-15.20 mg·L^-1 which was higher under natural forests or plantations than in croplands or rangelands and positively correlated with annual production of aboveground detritus (p=0.05). The concentration of DOC in detrital leachate solutions, derived from detritus submerged in water for 24 h, was 12.30-64.79 mg·L^-1 and its fraction was not more than 1%. The concentration of detrital DOC was 400% and 153% higher under natural forests than cropland and rangeland, respectively, and 194% and 50% higher under plantation than cropland and rangeland, respectively. Its fraction was 79% and 98% higher in the cropland and rangeland than the natural forest, respectively, and 180% and 210% higher in the cropland and rangeland than the plantation, respectively. The concentration of DOC in detrital leachate was positively correlated with aboveground detrital carbon storage of leaf, branch, humus and litter (p=0.05, n=184). The concentration of DOC in soil solutions in the 0-20 cm deep soil layer was 7.88-88.44 mg·L^-1 and its fraction was not more than 1%. The concentration of soil solution DOC was higher under the natural secondary forest or the plantation than cropland or rangeland, and its fraction was lower under natural forest than cropland or rangeland but higher under the plantation than natural secondary forests. The difference of the soil solution DOC concentration or fraction between the natural secondary forest or plantation and rangeland or cropland was greater at 0-10 cm soil depth than 10-20 cm soil layer. The change of this DOC concentration with soil depth was greater under the natural secondary forest or plantation than cropland or rangeland. The concentration of this DOC was positively correlated with detrital carbon storage and soil water content (p=0.05), and soil water content was the main factor that influenced the concentration of DOC in soil solutions. The concentration of DOC in soil percolation water was 5.76-58.84 mg·L^-1 which was higher under the natural forest or plantation than cropland or rangeland. The difference in this DOC concentration between the natural secondary forest or plantation and rangeland or cropland was greater in the 0-10 cm than 10-40 cm soil layer. The change of this DOC concentration with soil depth was greater under the natural secondary forest or plantation than cropland or rangeland. These differences were ascribed to the differences in vegetation and soil properties that resulted from changes in land use and their consequent impacts on hydrological processes. The results of this study indicate that changes in land use have large impacts on terrestrial DOC concentrations.