Croplands in the Comarca Lagunera region of Mexico are undergoing abandonment due to water scarcity. The effects of vegetation succession following cropland abandonment on soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (STN) stocks have been poorly studied although such effects have important implications for terrestrial carbon pools and the global carbon cycle. This study sought to determine the organic carbon and total nitrogen content in soil at two depths (0–30 cm and 30–60 cm) and the successional biomass with a chronosequence of 2, 15, 25, and 35 years of restoration after cropland abandonment, as well as uncultivated areas of native microphyllous desert scrub vegetation used as reference (Ref). Results revealed that the ecological succession 35 years after cropland abandonment resulted in high dominance by the species Prosopis glandulosa. Because of that, the latest stage since cropland abandonment (35 years) contained about three times more carbon and nitrogen (2.64 Mg C ha⁻¹ and 0.62 Mg N ha⁻¹, respectively) in aboveground biomass than reference areas (0.94 Mg C ha⁻¹ and 0.21 Mg N ha⁻¹, respectively). In contrast, soil carbon tended to decrease as years of abandonment increased. Thus, areas with 35 years of abandonment, although having high aerial carbon content, had the lowest soil carbon accumulation. Soil organic carbon and total nitrogen content showed no significant differences between the sampling depths in the investigated sites during the restoration time. These findings suggest that soil carbon accumulation after cropland abandonment through unmanaged ecological succession is difficult to achieve in this area.

由于缺水，墨西哥 Comarca Lagunera 地区的农田正在被废弃。耕地废弃后植被演替对土壤有机碳 (SOC) 和总氮 (STN) 储量的影响研究甚少，尽管此类影响对陆地碳库和全球碳循环具有重要意义。本研究旨在确定两个深度（0-30 厘米和 30-60 厘米）土壤中的有机碳和总氮含量，以及耕地废弃后恢复时间序列为 2、15、25 和 35 年的演替生物量，以及用作参考的原生微叶沙漠灌木植被的未开垦区域（参考文献）。结果表明，弃耕35年后的生态演替导致该物种的高度优势腺花木兰。因此，自农田弃耕以来的最新阶段（35 年）在地上生物量中所含的碳和氮（分别为 2.64 Mg C ha ^-1和 0.62 Mg N ha ^-1）是参考区域（0.94 Mg C ha ^-1）的三倍^-1和 0.21 Mg N ha ^-1， 分别）。相反，随着废弃年数的增加，土壤碳趋于减少。因此，废弃 35 年的地区，虽然空中碳含量高，但土壤碳积累量最低。在恢复期间，调查地点的土壤有机碳和总氮含量在采样深度之间没有显着差异。这些发现表明，在该地区难以通过未管理的生态演替实现农田弃耕后的土壤碳积累。