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Soil particulate organic carbon under different land use and management
Author(s) -
Chan K.Y.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
soil use and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.709
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1475-2743
pISSN - 0266-0032
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-2743.2001.tb00030.x
Subject(s) - total organic carbon , environmental science , pasture , soil carbon , soil water , carbon fibers , particulate organic carbon , agronomy , soil science , environmental chemistry , nutrient , chemistry , ecology , biology , materials science , phytoplankton , composite number , composite material
. Changes in particulate organic carbon (POC) relative to total organic carbon (TOC) were measured in soils from five agronomic trial sites in New South Wales, Australia. These sites covered a wide range of different land use and management practices. POC made up 42–74% of TOC and tended to be greater under pasture and more conservative management than traditional cropping regimes. It was the form of organic carbon preferentially lost when soils under long‐term pasture were brought under cultivation. It was also the dominant form of organic carbon accumulating under more conservative management practices (direct drilling, stubble retained and organic farming). Across all sites, changes in POC accounted for 81.2% (range 69–94%) of the changes in total organic carbon caused by differences in land use and management. Significant differences were found between pasture and cropped soils in the carbon content in the <53 μm fraction, particularly for hardsetting soils. However, even with these, POC was a more sensitive indicator of change caused by land use and management practices than TOC. The current method for measuring POC involves dispersion using sodium hexametaphosphate. The dispersing agent was found to extract 4–19 % of the TOC, leading to a significant under‐estimation of POC.