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Effects of land‐use change on chemical composition of soil organic matter in tropical lowland Bolivia
Author(s) -
Abe Susumu S.,
Mueller Carsten W.,
Steffens Markus,
Koelbl Angelika,
Knicker Heike,
KoegelKnabner Ingrid
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
grassland science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.388
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1744-697X
pISSN - 1744-6961
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-697x.2009.00146.x
Subject(s) - organic matter , chemical composition , soil organic matter , composition (language) , magic angle spinning , chemistry , soil carbon , rangeland , agronomy , environmental chemistry , environmental science , soil water , soil science , agroforestry , biology , nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy , organic chemistry , linguistics , philosophy
Land‐use change affects not only the amount of soil organic matter (SOM) but also its composition. We performed cross‐polarization magic angle spinning (CPMAS) 13 C and 15 N nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to investigate the chemical composition of bulk SOM in topsoils (0–15 cm) under different land use, namely native forest (NF), 27‐year cropland with wheat/soybean rotation (CL) and 27‐year rangelands with guineagrass (RG) and with bahiagrass (RB), in south‐east Bolivia. The findings of this study showed only a subtle alteration of composition of bulk SOM despite the large changes in carbon (C) content. Nevertheless, NF and RB showed a slightly lower abundance of aromatic C but a higher proportion of alkyl C compared to CL and RG where the loss of organic matter was substantial. This suggests that relatively stable components dominated by aromatic structures had relatively enriched during SOM decomposition under agricultural practices. A slight disparity of SOM composition observed between RG and RB (less O‐alkyl C but more aromatic C in RG than RB) suggests that grass species influenced SOM quality even under the same land use, namely the rangeland. On the other hand, organic N composition was less affected by land use or management practice than C forms.