The Pedospheric Variation of DTPA-Extractable Zn, Fe, Mn, Cu and Other Physicochemical Characteristics in Major Soil Orders in Existing Land Use Systems of Punjab, India

The agricultural production in Punjab has increased manifold that aggravated the deficiencies of micronutrients in soils and plants. The availability of soil micronutrients in different soil orders depends upon the soil mineralogy, topography, climatic conditions and cropping sequences. Hence, to study the pedospheric variations of DTPA-extractable micronutrients, viz., zinc (Zn), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn) and copper (Cu), in three prominent soil orders of Punjab, a total of 144 depth-wise soil samples were collected from four major land-use systems (cultivated, horticulture, forest and pasture lands). The DTPA extractable micronutrients varied from 1.74–2.81, 1.83–2.82 and 1.81–2.80 for Zn; 5.3–6.8, 5.6–6.9, 4.3–6.3 for Fe; 5.1–7.8, 5.5–7.9, 5.4–7.5 for Mn; and 0.84–1.40, 0.93–1.68, 0.87–1.65 for Cu in soil orders Aridisol, Entisol and Inceptisol, respectively. The average content of DTPA-extractable micronutrients was highest under soil order Entisol followed by Inceptisol and Aridisol. The content of micronutrients showed a declining trend with increase in soil depth in all orders. Among different soil properties, the pH and EC showed significantly negative correlation, however, OC had non-significant correlation with DTPA-extractable micronutrients in soils. Therefore, it is concluded that parent material, land use systems and soil depth affected the distribution of DTPA extractable micronutrients in different soil orders.

Variability in modelled airborne dust mineralogy derived from global soil composition uncertainties

<p>Dust aerosols consist on a variety of minerals with different physic and chemical properties. As such, they interact with short and long wave radiation, potentially form clouds, act as nutrients modulating biogeochemical cycles, or influence atmospheric chemistry, differently. Most current state-of-the-art Earth System Models (ESMs) neglect the complexity in dust composition, mainly due to computational constraints, but also to the existing uncertainties in the size resolved composition of parent soils, the resulting distribution of minerals in airborne dust, and the scarcity of observations to constrain them.</p><p>Within this work, we assess the variability of global dust composition due to uncertainties in the characterization of the parent soil mineralogy. To that end, we consider two available global soil mineralogy atlases, developed by Claquin et al. (1999) –C1999- and Journet et al. (2014) –J2014-, which represent respectively 8 and 12 relevant minerals for climate (namely: illite, smectite/montmorillonite, kaolinite, calcite, gypsum, hematite, quartz, and feldspars in C1999, and those plus chlorite, vermiculite, goethite, and mica in J2014). Thanks to a recently developed feature of the MONARCH atmospheric-chemistry model, we are able to explicitly resolve the minerals’ atmospheric cycle. Therefore, we define two global experiments to assess changes on airborne dust composition attributed to the soil mineralogy assumptions and provide a measure of their variability. We also perform a preliminary evaluation of the global mineralogy results against available observations of mineral fractions in surface dust concentration.</p><p>Our results will inform the climate modelling community about the potential variability in dust composition, an aspect that will gain relevance as ESMs continue growing in complexity and new processes to better characterize aerosols’ forcing or biogeochemical cycles are added. Further observational constraints, such as those that will derive from the EMIT NASA mission on soil composition or the FRAGMENT experimental campaigns on airborne dust characterization, will be key in the near future to improve our understanding of the impact of dust mineralogy on fundamental climate features.</p>

Soil carbon persistence linked to mineralogy across sub-Saharan Africa

<p>Recent compilations of global soil radiocarbon data suggest that current Earth System Models underestimate the mean age of soil carbon (C). The discrepancy between data-derived estimates and model calculations might be due to an inadequate representation of processes that control C persistence in soils – especially in understudied regions.</p><p>Here, we investigate the relationships between soil mineralogy, soil properties, climate and radiocarbon (Δ<sup>14</sup>C) in soils sampled as part of a comprehensive soil survey (AfSIS) for sub-Saharan Africa. A total of 510 samples were analyzed, comprised of soils collected from two depths (0–20 cm and 20–50 cm) at 30 sites in 14 countries. To determine soil mineralogy, we analyzed X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) data, which provides a precise and detailed mineralogical signature of each soil sample. The studied soil profiles vary greatly in their mineralogy, reflecting a diverse range of parent materials and soil forming factors.</p><p>The median soil C age is 182 years in the topsoils and 563 years in the subsoils, corresponding to a total Δ<sup>14</sup>C value range of -432 to 95 ‰. In general, Δ<sup>14</sup>C values decrease (older mean C ages) with increasing clay particle size fractions. This corresponds to an increase in short range-order minerals expressed as oxalate-extractable aluminum and iron (Al<sub>ox</sub> and Fe<sub>ox</sub>). Separately, mineralogically defined variables – derived from the XRPD data using principal component analysis – are found to correlate strongly with a range of soil properties (pH, weathering status, exchangeable calcium, Al<sub>ox</sub> and Fe<sub>ox</sub>, and soil texture) and climatic variables (aridity index and mean annual temperature). This provides a holistic assessment of the processes that have formed each soil along with the properties that it currently exhibits. Our analyses with random forests show that these XRPD-derived mineralogical variables alone can explain up to 30% of the variation in Δ<sup>14</sup>C across sub-Saharan Africa. They also allow the identification of specific minerals that contribute to this variation and how they are linked to the C mean age of the soil. In conclusion, our results suggest that soil mineral data can help to better understand C persistence in subtropical and tropical soils.</p>

Silicon exportation by crops alters soil mineralogy and clay fraction

Aims Silicon (Si) dynamic in system controls mineral evolution. We expected that the Si exported from soil due to soybean cultivation would affect Si forms and clay minerals. The objective of this study was to evaluate Si forms in the soil-plant system in areas with different soybean cultivation times in order to respond how Si exportation affects soil mineralogy. Methods Oxisols under soybean cultivation for 2, 8 and 40 years were evaluated and an adjacent area with native vegetation was used as the control treatment. The total and available Si in the soil and in the roots, aerial part of the plants and in the soybeans were evaluated, as well as the physical, chemical and mineralogical attributes of the soil. Results We estimated that 12 to 15 kg/ha of Si were exported by soybean grains per cultivation. The Si exportation for 40 years decreased the available Si contents in the soil by 9%, compared to the native field. The total Si contents in the clay fraction after 40 years of cultivation were 29% lower when compared to the native field. As a consequence of the soil cultivation for 40 years, we observed a decrease in the clay content and a clay dissolution, changing the clay mineral fraction. Conclusions The Si exportation by soybean grain promotes changes in particle size contents and mineral fraction of cultivated soils. Our results highlighted that Si, should be taken into account in a suitable fertilization process in agricultural lands submitted to intensive use.