Erosion process increases the variability in the total SOC stock
both vertically through the soil profile and spatially across the
landscape; it also affects vertical and spatial variability of soil
temperature and soil moisture (Chan et al., 2007). A lot of
laboratory research has been done to study the relationship
between C flux and soil temperature and soil moisture (Borken
et al., 2003; Lee et al., 2004; Liu et al., 2002). Polyakov and Lal
(2008) studied the effect of erosion on SOC migration andmineralization. Their results suggest that there are two main ways
through which erosion decreases SOC: (1) SOC lost with runoff and
(2) accelerated mineralization. They also point out that the
difference in SOC content at different slope positions is the main
reason for the difference of carbon mineralization rate. The
relationship between C mineralization and soil moisture temperature was not considered.