Effects of cropland reclamation on soil organic carbon in China's black soil region over the past 35 years

Abstract The long‐term use of cropland and cropland reclamation from natural ecosystems led to soil degradation. This study investigated the effect of the long‐term use of cropland and cropland reclamation from natural ecosystems on soil organic carbon (SOC) content and density over the past 35 years. Altogether, 2140 topsoil samples (0–20 cm) were collected across Northeast China. Landsat images were acquired from 1985 to 2020 through Google Earth Engine, and the reflectance of each soil sample was extracted from the Landsat image that its time was consistent with sampling. The hybrid model that included two individual SOC prediction models for two clustering regions was built for accurate estimation after k‐means clustering. The probability hybrid model, a combination between the hybrid model and classification probabilities of pixels, was introduced to enhance the accuracy of SOC mapping. Cropland reclamation results were extracted from the land cover time‐series dataset at a 5‐year interval. Our study indicated that: (1) Long‐term use of cropland led to a 3.07 g kg −1 and 6.71 Mg C ha −1 decrease in SOC content and density, respectively, and the decrease of SOC stock was 0.32 Pg over the past 35 years; (2) nearly 64% of cropland had a negative change in terms of SOC content from 1985 to 2020; (3) cropland reclamation track changed from high to low SOC content, and almost no cropland was reclaimed on the “Black soils” after 2005; (4) cropland reclamation from wetlands resulted in the highest decrease, and reclamation period of years 31–35 decreased when SOC density and SOC stock were 16.05 Mg C ha −1 and 0.005 Pg, respectively, while reclamation period of years 26–30 from forest witnessed SOC density and stock decreases of 8.33 Mg C ha −1 and 0.01 Pg, respectively. Our research results provide a reference for SOC change in the black soil region of Northeast China and can attract more attention to the area of the protection of “Black soils” and natural ecosystems.