Effects of multi human disturbance on soil organic carbon: mediation by landscape patterns and forest community attributes in forest villages of the Henan section, Yellow River Basin

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Abstract
Introduction: National Forest Villages (NFVs) represent a policy-relevant rural greening initiative with potential contributions to soil organic carbon (SOC) maintenance, yet how multi human disturbances are associated with forest SOC remains poorly understood. Methods: We investigated all 99 NFVs in the Henan section of the Yellow River Basin by integrating field surveys, remote sensing data, and statistical approaches. Forest SOC concentration (SOCc), SOC density (SOCs), and forest-to-cropland enrichment ratios (RSOCc and RSOCs) were quantified using paired forest–cropland plots. Human disturbance was characterized by land use human disturbance (LUHD) and multiscale socioeconomic human disturbance (SEHD), while landscape patterns and forest community attributes were quantified independently. After controlling for geoclimatic variation, partial correlations, partial redundancy analysis, variation partitioning, and piecewise structural equation modeling were used to identify their associations with SOC. Results: Weak LUHD NFVs generally maintained 25%–35% higher SOCc and relative SOC enrichment than severely disturbed NFVs, whereas SOCs and landscape diversity were highest under moderate LUHD. Increasing LUHD was also associated with pronounced changes in forest landscape configuration, including reduced forest dominance and greater forest isolation under severe disturbance. Human disturbance and landscape patterns independently explained 13.0% and 7.9% of SOC variation, respectively, whereas the unique contribution of forest community attributes was smaller and non-significant (3.8%). Piecewise SEM further showed that landscape configuration had the largest total association with overall SOC variation. LUHD and urban socioeconomic activity exhibited opposing direct and landscape-mediated associations with SOC. Discussion: These findings highlight landscape configuration as a key linkage between human disturbance and forest SOC and suggest that maintaining forest dominance, limiting excessive impervious surface expansion, and conserving tree diversity are important for coordinating rural development with SOC management in NFVs.

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