Work

Drivers of soil organic carbon recovery during secondary succession along a West African climate gradient

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Quantifying how soils resist degradation and recover organic carbon following agricultural abandonment is critical for understanding land restoration trajectories in West Africa. This study applies a Bayesian hierarchical modeling framework to assess resistance (the proportion of soil organic carbon [SOC] retained after land use) and resilience (the rate of SOC recovery) during forest succession across eight chronosequences in Côte d’Ivoire. SOC was measured across three depths (0–30 cm) under different vegetation stages: fallow, secondary, and old-growth forests. The model reveals that soils recover up to 90% of their original SOC within 10 years post-abandonment, with considerable variation driven by topography, prior land use, and particularly the presence of remnant trees. Resistance was lowest following cotton and perennial cropping systems, while annual crops retained more SOC. Resilience was significantly enhanced by remnant tree density, with recovery rates more than doubling in areas hosting over 50 remnant trees per hectare. In contrast, increasing precipitation, temperature, and their seasonality reduced SOC recovery, underscoring climatic constraints on resilience. This Bayesian approach enables probabilistic estimation of SOC trajectories, offering nuanced insight into carbon recovery processes under varied ecological and management conditions. Our findings underscore the value of preserving remnant trees as ecological anchors in post-agricultural landscapes, reinforcing passive regeneration as a viable and cost-effective strategy to restore soil carbon in West Africa.

Source: Ecological Indicators

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.114073