Dataset fo: Assessing the impact of Landcover change on Soil Organic Carbon Stocks in Chile: Implications for terrestrial ecosystems and conservation policies

Dataset fo: Assessing the impact of Landcover change on Soil Organic Carbon Stocks in Chile: Implications for terrestrial ecosystems and conservation policies. ABSTRACT Understanding the dynamics of soil organic carbon (SOC) is essential for comprehending the global carbon cycle and ensuring the functioning of soils and terrestrial ecosystems. This study accounted for the interplay between human activities, specifically through the effects of landcover, upon the distribution of (SOC), particularly focusing on Chilean terrestrial ecosystems and protected areas. We combined random forest modeling with remote sensing variables to analyze SOC content (%) and volumetric stocks across landcover types, categorizing them as low-impact and high-impact. Our results show that approximately 1.6 billion Mg of SOC is distributed across Chile's terrestrial ecosystems, with almost 80% concentrated within the low-impact landcover category and in temperate forests. However, the latter distribution is uneven, and the remaining 20% of SOCs are primarily present within the Sclerophyllous Forest, a highly threatened ecosystem. Furthermore, our assessment of SOCs in protected areas highlights the importance of public lands in conserving SOC, with public areas containing over four times more SOCs than private areas. Our results are invaluable in identifying in situ conservation priorities, such as identifying threatened ecosystems and addressing critical gaps regarding the protected areas system. By offering new inputs to model and identify areas prone to soil degradation and SOC loss, our study contributes to national and international soil-related policies advancing efforts to safeguard SOC, and improve soil conservation and restoration initiatives. Keywords: Carbon sequestration, Chile, ecosystem management, irreplaceable carbon, remote sensing, soil conservation数据集：智利土地覆盖变化对土壤有机碳储量的影响——对陆地生态系统与保护政策的启示 摘要 明晰土壤有机碳（Soil Organic Carbon, SOC）的动态变化，是理解全球碳循环、保障土壤与陆地生态系统功能的核心前提。本研究考量了人类活动——尤其是土地覆盖变化带来的影响——与土壤有机碳（SOC）分布之间的相互作用，研究重点聚焦于智利陆地生态系统与保护区。本研究将随机森林建模与遥感变量相结合，对不同土地覆盖类型下的SOC含量（%）与体积储量进行分析，并将其划分为低影响与高影响两类。 研究结果显示，智利陆地生态系统的SOC总储量约为16亿公吨（1.6 billion Mg），其中近80%集中于低影响土地覆盖类型与温带森林范围内。不过，温带森林内的SOC分布并不均衡；剩余20%的SOC储量主要集中于硬叶林（Sclerophyllous Forest）这一受高度威胁的生态系统中。此外，本研究对保护区内SOC的评估凸显了公共土地在SOC保护中的重要性：公共区域的SOC储量是私人区域的四倍以上。 本研究结果可为原位保护优先区的划定提供极具价值的参考，例如识别受威胁生态系统、填补保护区体系存在的关键短板。本研究可为土壤退化与SOC流失风险区域的建模与识别提供新的输入依据，助力国家及国际层面的土壤相关政策制定，推动SOC保护、土壤保育与修复行动的开展。 关键词：碳固存、智利、生态系统管理、不可替代碳、遥感、土壤保育