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Land‐use contrasts reveal instability of subsoil organic carbon
Author(s) -
Hobley Eleanor,
Baldock Jeff,
Hua Quan,
Wilson Brian
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
global change biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.146
H-Index - 255
eISSN - 1365-2486
pISSN - 1354-1013
DOI - 10.1111/gcb.13379
Subject(s) - subsoil , environmental science , land use , instability , soil science , soil carbon , total organic carbon , carbon fibers , environmental chemistry , ecology , chemistry , materials science , soil water , biology , mechanics , composite number , composite material , physics
Subsoils contain large amounts of organic carbon which is generally believed to be highly stable when compared with surface soils. We investigated subsurface organic carbon storage and dynamics by analysing organic carbon concentrations, fractions and isotopic values in 78 samples from 12 sites under different land‐uses and climates in eastern Australia. Despite radiocarbon ages of several millennia in subsoils, contrasting native systems with agriculturally managed systems revealed that subsurface organic carbon is reactive on decadal timeframes to land‐use change, which leads to large losses of young carbon down the entire soil profile. Our results indicate that organic carbon storage in soils is input driven down the whole profile, challenging the concept of subsoils as a repository of stable organic carbon.