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Soil‐organic‐matter stability in sandy cropland soils is related to land‐use history
Author(s) -
Sleutel Steven,
Abdul Kader Mohammed,
Ara Begum Shamim,
De Neve Stefaan
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of plant nutrition and soil science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.644
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1522-2624
pISSN - 1436-8730
DOI - 10.1002/jpln.200900062
Subject(s) - soil water , mineralization (soil science) , organic matter , fractionation , total organic carbon , environmental science , soil organic matter , soil carbon , agronomy , environmental chemistry , soil science , chemistry , biology , organic chemistry
Sandy cropland soils in NW Europe were found to contain unusually high organic‐carbon (OC) levels, and a link with their land‐use history has been suggested. This study's aim was to assess the discriminating power of physical and chemical fractionation procedures to yield information on soil‐organic‐matter (OM) stability for these soils. In relict‐ and cultivated‐heathland soils, much higher proportions of 6% NaOCl treatment–resistant but 10% HF–soluble OC (MOC) and N (32.2% and 29.9%) were measured compared to a set of “permanent"‐cropland soils without a history of heathland land use (11.9% and 8.5%). Also, the proportions of 6% NaOCl– and 10% HF treatment–resistant OC and N in the relict and cultivated heathlands (19.2% and 12.0%) were higher than in the permanent‐cropland soils (17.7% and 5.7%). Stepwise multiple linear‐regression yielded a significant relationship between the annual mineralization (g C [100 g OC] –1 ), soil OC (g C kg –1 ) content, and %MOC: Annual mineralization = 4.347 – 0.087 soil OC – 0.032 %MOC ( R 2 = 0.65). Combinations of incubation experiments for quantification of the labile soil OM pool with chemical fractionation may thus yield meaningful data for development of soil‐organic‐matter models with measurable pools, but their applicability will be limited to specific combinations of former land use with soil, climate, and current management.