CHLSOC: The Chilean Soil Organic Carbon database, a multi-institutional collaborative effort

Abstract

Abstract. One of the critical aspects in modelling soil organic carbon (SOC) predictions is the lack of access to soil information which is usually concentrated in regions of high agricultural interest. In Chile, most soil and SOC data to date is highly concentrated in 25 % of the territory that has intensive agricultural or forestry use. Vast areas beyond those forms of land use have few or no soil data available. Here, we present a new database of SOC for the country, which is the result of an unprecedented national effort under the frame of the Global Soil Partnership that help to build the largest database on SOC to date in Chile named “CHLSOC" comprising 13,612 data points. This dataset is the product of the compilation from numerous sources including unpublished and difficult to access data, allowing to fill numerous spatial gaps where no SOC estimates were publicly available before. The values of SOC compiled in CHLSOC range from 6×10−5 to 83.3 percent, reflecting the variety of ecosystems that exists in Chile. Profiting from the richness of geochemical, topographic and climatic variability in Chile, the dataset has the potential to inform and test models trying to predict SOC stocks and dynamics at larger spatial scales. Dataset available at https://www.doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/NMYS3 (Pfeiffer et al., 2019b).

Gradient Studies Reveal the True Drivers of Extreme Life in the Atacama Desert

“…SOC content declined with increasing aridity along the SN‐gradient (Figure 2) which is in agreement with field observations of the loss of above‐ground vegetation and with other studies sampling in South‐North direction (Crits‐Christoph et al., 2013). SOC contents coincide to the findings of other studies (Connon et al., 2007; Crits‐Christoph et al., 2013; Ewing et al., 2008; Pfeiffer et al., 2020) and lie well below concentrations of other deserts, like the Northern Negev desert (minimum of 2.3 g kg −1 in autumn in the driest season; Amundson, 2001; Barness et al., 2009). We suggest the decline to be a direct result of the decrease of water availability as water drives primary production (Lawlor, 2002).…”

A combined microbial and biogeochemical dataset from high-latitude ecosystems with respect to methane cycle

“…Some grassland soil came from an experimental monitored field site (Supplementary Table S1 ). Samples collected from Patagonian soils and wetlands have been included in a recent survey of soil geochemical characterization (organic content) 45 . Sediment samples collected in lakes PPL1, PPL2, PCL1, PCL2, PCP2 were also included in a recent study by Lavergne et al .…”

Aridec: an open database of litter mass loss from aridlands worldwide with recommendations on suitable model applications

“…Other databases that focus on land C studies include the Soil Incubation Database (SIDb; Schädel et al, 2020), a peatland productivity and decomposition parameter database compiled by Natural Resources Canada (Bona et al, 2018), and the Chilean Soil Organic Carbon Database (CHLSOC; Pfeiffer et al, 2020). Although they all intend to assess questions related to C budgets in terrestrial ecosystems to some extent, not all of them present decomposition data (i.e., Pfeiffer et al, 2020). Moreover, only SIDb (Schädel et al, 2020) and aridec contain time series of organic matter loss.…”