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Soil Carbon Stocks of the Brazilian Amazon Basin
Author(s) -
Moraes Jener L.,
Cerri Carlos C.,
Melillo Jerry M.,
Kicklighter David,
Neill Christopher,
Skole David L.,
Steudler Paul A.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
soil science society of america journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.836
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1435-0661
pISSN - 0361-5995
DOI - 10.2136/sssaj1995.03615995005900010038x
Subject(s) - structural basin , amazon basin , amazon rainforest , vegetation (pathology) , environmental science , soil water , soil carbon , bulk density , soil survey , hydrology (agriculture) , soil science , forestry , geology , geography , ecology , geomorphology , biology , medicine , geotechnical engineering , pathology
We determined stocks of C and N for soils under undisturbed vegetation across the Brazilian Amazon Basin based on 1162 soil profiles of the RADAMBRASIL survey and a digitized Brazilian soil survey map. Mean basin soil C density was 10.3 kg C m −2 . Forty‐seven petagrams C and 4.4 Pg N were contained in the top 1 m of soil. Forty‐five percent of total basin soil C (21 Pg C) and 41% of total soil N (1.8 Pg N) were contained in the top 20 cm across a ≈ 5 000 000‐km 2 area. Mean C/N ratio for the basin to a depth of 1 m was 10.7. Because these data represent sites with forest vegetation in the absence of significant disturbances, they represent a valuable baseline for evaluating the effects of land‐use changes on soil C stocks in the Amazon Basin.