Prediction of vertical soil organic carbon profiles using soil properties and environmental tracer data at an untilled site

Geoderma ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 170 ◽  
pp. 337-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Wells ◽  
G.R. Hancock ◽  
C. Dever ◽  
D. Murphy
Land ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 455
Author(s):  
Rebecca M. Swab ◽  
Nicola Lorenz ◽  
Nathan R. Lee ◽  
Steven W. Culman ◽  
Richard P. Dick

After strip mining, soils typically suffer from compaction, low nutrient availability, loss of soil organic carbon, and a compromised soil microbial community. Prairie restorations can improve ecosystem services on former agricultural lands, but prairie restorations on mine lands are relatively under-studied. This study investigated the impact of prairie restoration on mine lands, focusing on the plant community and soil properties. In southeast Ohio, 305 ha within a ~2000 ha area of former mine land was converted to native prairie through herbicide and planting between 1999–2016. Soil and vegetation sampling occurred from 2016–2018. Plant community composition shifted with prairie age, with highest native cover in the oldest prairie areas. Prairie plants were more abundant in older prairies. The oldest prairies had significantly more soil fungal biomass and higher soil microbial biomass. However, many soil properties (e.g., soil nutrients, β-glucosoidase activity, and soil organic carbon), as well as plant species diversity and richness trended higher in prairies, but were not significantly different from baseline cool-season grasslands. Overall, restoration with prairie plant communities slowly shifted soil properties, but mining disturbance was still the most significant driver in controlling soil properties. Prairie restoration on reclaimed mine land was effective in establishing a native plant community, with the associated ecosystem benefits.


Agronomy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 1871 ◽  
Author(s):  
Porntip Puttaso ◽  
Weravart Namanusart ◽  
Kanjana Thumanu ◽  
Bhanudacha Kamolmanit ◽  
Alain Brauman ◽  
...  

Leaf litter plays a major role in carbon and nutrient cycling, as well as in fueling food webs. The chemical composition of a leaf may directly and indirectly influence decomposition rates by influencing rates of biological reactions and by influencing the accumulation of soil organic carbon content, respectively. This study aimed to assess the impact of the chemical composition of rubber (Hevea brasiliensis (Willd. ex A. Juss.) Muell. Arg.) leaves on various soil properties of different ages of rubber (4–5, 11–12, and 22–23 year-old). Synchrotron-based Fourier transform infrared microspectroscopy (Sr-FTIR) was utilized for analyzing the chemical composition of plant leaves. The Sr-FTIR bands illustrated that the epidermis of rubber leaves from 4–5-year-old trees was found to contain a high quantity of polysaccharides while mesophyll from 22–23-year-old trees had a large number of polysaccharides. The change in soil properties in the older rubber plantation could be attributed to its chemical composition. The change in soil properties across all tree ages, i.e., increased litter and organic carbon content, was a relatively strong driver of soil biota evolution. The aliphatic of C-H in the leaves showed high correlation with soil organic carbon (SOC) and permanganate-oxidizable C (POXC) from 22–23 year-old trees. This study shows the differences in the organic chemical composition of leaves that are consequential to soil organic carbon.


Forests ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 494 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Marcos ◽  
Víctor Fernández-García ◽  
Alfonso Fernández-Manso ◽  
Carmen Quintano ◽  
Luz Valbuena ◽  
...  

We analysed the relationship between burn severity indicators, from remote sensing and field observations, and soil properties after a wildfire in a fire-prone Mediterranean ecosystem. Our study area was a large wildfire in a Pinus pinaster forest. Burn severity from remote sensing was identified by studying immediate post-fire Land Surface Temperature (LST). We also evaluated burn severity in the field applying the Composite Burn Index (CBI) in a total of 84 plots (30 m diameter). In each plot we evaluated litter consumption, ash colour and char depth as visual indicators. We collected soil samples and pH, soil organic carbon, dry aggregate size distribution (MWD), aggregate stability and water repellency were analysed. A controlled heating of soil was also carried out in the laboratory, with soil from the control plots, to compare with the changes produced in soils affected by different severity levels in the field. Our results shown that changes in soil properties affected by wildfire were only observed in soil aggregation in the high severity situation. The laboratory-controlled heating showed that temperatures of about 300 °C result in a significant reduction in soil organic carbon and MWD. Furthermore, soil organic carbon showed a significant decrease when LST values increased. Char depth was the best visual indicator to show changes in soil properties (mainly physical properties) in large fires that occur in Mediterranean pine forests. We conclude that CBI and post-fire LST can be considered good indicators of soil burn severity since both indicate the impact of fire on soil properties.


Geoderma ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 347 ◽  
pp. 70-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sangeeta Lenka ◽  
Pankaj Trivedi ◽  
Brajesh Singh ◽  
Bhupinder Pal Singh ◽  
Elise Pendall ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leigh Winowiecki ◽  
Tor-Gunnar Vågen

<p>Maintaining soil organic carbon (SOC) content is recognized as an important strategy for a well-functioning soil ecosystem. The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) recognizes that reduced SOC content can lead to land degradation, and ultimately low land and agricultural productivity. SOC is almost universally proposed as the most important indicator of soil health, not only because SOC positively influences multiple soil properties that affect productivity, including cation exchange capacity and water holding capacity, but also because SOC content reflects aboveground activities, including especially agricultural land management. To be useful as an indicator, it is crucial to assess the importance of both inherent soil properties as well as external factors (climate, vegetation cover, land management, etc.) on SOC dynamics across space and time. This requires large, reliable and up-to-date soil health data sets across diverse land cover classes. The Land Degradation Surveillance Framework (LDSF), a well-established method for assessing multiple biophysical indicators at georeferenced locations, was employed in nine countries across the tropics (Burkina Faso, Cameron, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nicaragua, Peru, and South Africa) to assess the influence of land use, tree cover and inherent soil properties on soil organic carbon dynamics. The LDSF was designed to provide a biophysical baseline at landscape level, and monitoring and evaluation framework for assessing processes of land degradation and the effectiveness of rehabilitation measures over time. Each LDSF site has 160 – 1000 m<sup>2</sup> plots that were randomly stratified among 16 - 1 km<sup>2</sup> sampling clusters. A total of 6918 soil samples were collected (3478 topsoil (0-20 cm) and 3435 subsoil (20-50 cm)) within this study. All samples were analyzed using mid-infrared spectroscopy and 10% of the samples were analyzed using traditional wet chemistry to develop calibration prediction models.  Validation results for soil properties (soil organic carbon (SOC), sand, and total nitrogen) showed good accuracy with R<sup>2</sup> values ranging between 0.88 and 0.96. Mean organic carbon content was 21.9 g kg<sup>-1</sup> in topsoil and 15.2 g kg<sup>-1</sup> in subsoil (median was 18.3 g kg<sup>-1</sup>  for topsoil and 10.8 g kg<sup>-1</sup> in subsoil). Forest and grassland had the highest and similar carbon content while bushland/shrubland had the lowest. Sand content played an important role in determining the SOC content across the land cover types. Further analysis will be conducted and shared on the role of trees, land cover and texture on the dynamics of soil organic carbon and the implications for LDN reporting, land restoration initiatives as well as sustainable land management recommendations.</p>


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