Khandakar, Tania

Guppy, Christopher

Tighe, Matthew

Rabbi, Sheikh M F

Daniel, Heiko

2017

The concept of carbon (C) saturation implies that soils have a finite capacity to store C in a stable form, depending on their silt + clay content. We hypothesized that the stabilization of added organic C would be low in C saturated soil. We tested experimentally the influence of C saturation deficit on stabilization of added grass residue. We incubated 12 highly weathered, oxic soil samples collected from three contrasting land uses (i.e. cropping, improved pasture, and forest) with grass residue for 8 months. Carbon saturation deficit of the forest soils was lower than pasture and cropping soils. After incubation, we found increases in silt + clay associated C in grass residue treatment positively correlated with C saturation deficit of soils. Our results suggest that stabilization of added C was high in soil with low C saturation level and hence higher C saturation deficit.

Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis, 48(15), p. 1772-1780

1532-2416

0010-3624

https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/22453

Taylor & Francis Inc

Increased carbon stabilization in Australian ferrosol with high carbon saturation deficit

Journal Article

Publication