Data for meta-analysis of the soil greenhouse gas emissions

Exploring the responses of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions to land use
conversion or reversion is significant for taking effective land use
measures to alleviate global warming. A global meta-analysis was conducted
to analyze the responses of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and
nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions to land use conversion or reversion, and
determine their temporal evolution, driving factors and potential
mechanisms. Our results showed that CH4 and N2O responded positively to
land use conversion while CO2 responded negatively to the changes from
natural herb and secondary forest to plantation. By comparison, CH4
responded negatively to land use reversion and N2O also showed negative
response to the reversion from agricultural land to forest. The conversion
of land use weakened the function of natural forest and grassland as CH4
sink and the artificial nitrogen (N) addition for plantation increased N
source for N2O release from soil, while the reversion of land use could
alleviate them to some degree. Besides, soil carbon would impact CO2
emission for a long time after land use conversion, and secondary forest
reached the methane uptake level similar to that of primary forest after
over 40 years. N2O responses had negative relationships with time interval
under the conversions from forest to plantation, secondary forest and
pasture. In addition, meta-regression indicated that CH4 had correlations
with several environmental variables, and carbon-nitrogen ratio had
contrary relationships with N2O emission responses to land use conversion
and reversion. And the importance of driving factors displayed that CO2,
CH4 and N2O response to land use conversion and reversion were easily
affected by NH4+ and soil moisture, mean annual temperature and NO3-,
total nitrogen and mean annual temperature, respectively. This study would
provide enlightenment for scientific land management and reducing of GHG
emissions.