Understanding the spatial variability of soil organic carbon (SOC) and its main influencing factors is crucial for sustainable land use management and climate change mitigation. Existing studies mostly focus on the influence of environmental factors on the spatial variability of SOC, while little attention has been paid to the effects of wind erosion which has important influences in arid and semi-arid landscapes. In this study, spatial variability of SOC content at landscape scale and its main influencing factors were analysed at 0–1 cm and 1–6 cm in a typical temperate grassland. Results show that SOC content ranges from 0.45% to 4.11% and is higher at 0–1 cm. SOC presents strong and moderate spatial autocorrelation at 0–1 cm and 1–6 cm, respectively. SOC is high in part of the hilly area, and low in the west plain and southeast undulation. Elevation and vegetation coverage have significantly positive effects on SOC. SOC varies with land uses with the order that arable land (AL) < heavily grazed grassland (HG) < moderately grazed grassland (MG) < lightly grazed grassland (LG) < ungrazed grassland (UG) at 0–1 cm and AL < HG < MG < UG < LG at 1–6 cm. Under the same land use, SOC is generally the highest in the flatland at both layers and lowest in the leeward slope at 0–1 cm and the windward slope at 1–6 cm, respectively. Wind erosion and deposition can both alter SOC content and increase its spatial variability. SOC is high in areas without wind erosion and deposition and decreases with erosion and deposition rates due to the selective erosion and remote region sourced deposition materials which generally have low SOC. Such effects have important influence on land productivity, global carbon cycle and climate change, and it could not be neglected in carbon accounting.

了解土壤有机碳 (SOC) 的空间变异性及其主要影响因素对于可持续土地利用管理和减缓气候变化至关重要。现有研究主要集中在环境因素对SOC空间变异性的影响上，而很少关注对干旱和半干旱景观有重要影响的风蚀效应。本研究分析了典型温带草原0~1 cm和1~6 cm景观尺度SOC含量的空间变异及其主要影响因素。结果表明，SOC 含量范围为 0.45% 至 4.11%，并且在 0-1 cm 处更高。SOC 分别在 0-1 cm 和 1-6 cm 处呈现强和中度空间自相关。SOC在部分丘陵区高，西部平原和东南起伏低。海拔和植被覆盖度对 SOC 具有显着的正向影响。SOC 随土地利用而变化，顺序为可耕地 (AL) < 重度放牧草地 (HG) < 中度放牧草地 (MG) < 轻度放牧草地 (LG) < 0-1 cm 处的未放牧草地 (UG) 和 AL < HG < MG < UG < LG 在 1–6 厘米处。相同土地利用情况下，SOC一般在两层平地最高，背风坡0~1 cm和迎风坡1~6 cm最低。风蚀和沉积既可以改变 SOC 含量，又可以增加其空间变异性。SOC 在没有风蚀和沉积的地区很高，并且由于选择性侵蚀和偏远地区来源的沉积材料通常具有较低的 SOC，随侵蚀和沉积速率下降。