Drained organic soils under agriculture — The more degraded the soil the higher the specific basal respiration

Säurich, Annelie; Tiemeyer, Bärbel; Don, Axel; Fiedler, Sabine; Bechtold, Michel; Amelung, Wulf; Freibauer, Annette

doi:10.1016/j.geoderma.2019.113911

Cited by 33 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…Despite the potentially high recalcitrance of organic matter in these soils, it remains unclear how SOC stocks in relictic peatlands, heathlands or plaggen soils respond to long‐term agricultural management, including liming and fertilization. Indeed, Säurich et al (2019) found that organic soil samples at the boundary to mineral soils originating from this inventory still emitted considerable amount of CO 2 and could not be considered as stable. A repeated sampling might give valuable insights in this regard.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The degree of severe soil compaction and the potential for alleviating root‐restricting layers in German agricultural soils have also been investigated ( Schneider and Don , 2019a; 2019b). Wittnebel et al (submitted) summarized the properties of peat and other organic soils, while Säurich et al (2019) determined aerobic respiration rates of a large variety of organic soil samples. However, there has been no concise or complete presentation of the key outcomes of the first German Agricultural Soil Inventory so far, and the question of how soils in Germany should be stratified to derive groups with distinct SOC stocks remains unresolved.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Stocks of organic carbon in German agricultural soils—Key results of the first comprehensive inventory

Poeplau

Jacobs

Don

et al. 2020

J. Plant Nutr. Soil Sci.

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Background: There is considerable uncertainty about the actual size of the global soil organic carbon (SOC) pool and its spatial distribution due to insufficient and heterogeneous data coverage.Aims: We aimed to assess the size of the German agricultural SOC stock and develop a stratification approach that could be used in national greenhouse gas reporting.Methods: Soils from a total of 3104 sites, comprising 2234 croplands, 820 permanent grasslands and 50 sites with permanent crops (vineyards, orchards) were sampled in a grid of 8 × 8 km to a depth of 100 cm in fixed depth increments. In addition, a decade of management data was recorded in a questionnaire completed by farmers. Two different approaches were used to stratify cropland and grassland mineral soils and derive homogeneous groups: stratification via soil type (pedogenesis) and via SOC‐relevant soil properties.Results: A total of 146 soils were identified as organic soils, which stored by far the highest average SOC stock of 528 ± 201 Mg ha−1 in 0–100 cm depth. Of the mineral soils, croplands and permanent crops stored on average 61 ± 25 and 62 ± 25 Mg ha−1 in 0–30 cm (topsoil) and 35 ± 30 and 44 ± 28 Mg ha−1 in 30–100 cm (subsoil), while permanent grasslands stored significantly more SOC (88 ± 32 and 47 ± 50 Mg ha−1 in topsoil and subsoil). Overall, topsoils stored 67 ± 14% and subsoils 33 ± 14% of total SOC stocks. Soil C:N ratio, clay content and groundwater level were major factors that explained the spatial variability of SOC stocks in mineral soils. Accordingly, Podzols, Gleysols and Vertisols were found to have the highest SOC stocks.Conclusions: Stratification via soil properties yielded the most comparable cropland and grassland strata and is thus preferable for estimating land‐use change effects, e.g., for greenhouse gas inventories.In total, 2.5 Pg C are stored in the upper 100 cm of German agricultural soils, making them the largest organic carbon pool in terrestrial ecosystems of Germany. This bares a large responsibility for the agricultural sector and society as a whole to maintain and, if possible, enhance this pool.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stocks of organic carbon in German agricultural soils—Key results of the first comprehensive inventory

Poeplau

Jacobs

Don

et al. 2020

J. Plant Nutr. Soil Sci.

Self Cite

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“…Such organic soils naturally contain higher SOC contents (>18.0 %) in comparison to other soils. Most of these peatlands have been drained for agricultural use [97].…”

Section: Scmap Src As Database For Modeling Soc Contents With High Spatial Resolution Covering Large Geographical Areasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimation of Soil Organic Carbon Contents in Croplands of Bavaria from SCMaP Soil Reflectance Composites

et al. 2021

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For food security issues or global climate change, there is a growing need for large-scale knowledge of soil organic carbon (SOC) contents in agricultural soils. To capture and quantify SOC contents at a field scale, Earth Observation (EO) can be a valuable data source for area-wide mapping. The extraction of exposed soils from EO data is challenging due to temporal or permanent vegetation cover, the influence of soil moisture or the condition of the soil surface. Compositing techniques of multitemporal satellite images provide an alternative to retrieve exposed soils and to produce a data source. The repeatable soil composites, containing averaged exposed soil areas over several years, are relatively independent from seasonal soil moisture and surface conditions and provide a new EO-based data source that can be used to estimate SOC contents over large geographical areas with a high spatial resolution. Here, we applied the Soil Composite Mapping Processor (SCMaP) to the Landsat archive between 1984 and 2014 of images covering Bavaria, Germany. Compared to existing SOC modeling approaches based on single scenes, the 30-year SCMaP soil reflectance composite (SRC) with a spatial resolution of 30 m is used. The SRC spectral information is correlated with point soil data using different machine learning algorithms to estimate the SOC contents in cropland topsoils of Bavaria. We developed a pre-processing technique to address the issue of combining point information with EO pixels for the purpose of modeling. We applied different modeling methods often used in EO soil studies to choose the best SOC prediction model. Based on the model accuracies and performances, the Random Forest (RF) showed the best capabilities to predict the SOC contents in Bavaria (R² = 0.67, RMSE = 1.24%, RPD = 1.77, CCC = 0.78). We further validated the model results with an independent dataset. The comparison between the measured and predicted SOC contents showed a mean difference of 0.11% SOC using the best RF model. The SCMaP SRC is a promising approach to predict the spatial SOC distribution over large geographical extents with a high spatial resolution (30 m).

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“…The peatlands must undergo drainage for their application in agriculture as a soil substrate and for their stabilization as substrate in building and road construction as well as a support for heavy machinery for industry used e.g. in peat and petroleum extraction for energy producing [14][15][16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, biotic and abiotic conversions and degradation of peat organic matter is observed as effect of drainage [44][45][46][47]. Säurich et al [15] indicated that bog peat samples tend to be more sensitive to anthropogenic disturbance than fen peat samples.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of Drainage on Peat Organic Matter: Implications for Development, Stability, and Transformation

et al. 2020

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The agricultural use of peatlands, the stabilization of the substrate for building or road construction or for increasing the capacity of soil to support heavy machinery for industrial activities (peat and petroleum extraction), harvesting to provide peat for energy, and the growing media and initiation of chemical processes must be preceded by drainage. As a consequence of drainage, peat underwent an irreversible conversion into moorsh (secondary transformation of the peat). The object of the study was to investigate comparatively the organic matter composition and molecular structure of humic acids (HAs) in the raised bog, fen, and peat-moorsh soils developed in various compositions of botanical cover, peat-forming species, and oxic and anoxic conditions as a result of the oscillation of ground water during drainage as well as to evaluate the vulnerability of soil organic matter (SOM) to decomposition. Drainage was shown to be the principal factor causing the various chemical compositions and physicochemical properties of HAs. Large and significant differences in chemical composition of peat and the properties of HAs were found to be related to the degree of decomposition. The HAs from drained peatlands were less chemically mature. In contrast, the HAs from fen and raised bog were found to be more mature than that of the corresponding drained peatlands. The above findings showed the distinguishable structure of HAs within the soil profile created by the plant residue biodegradation and formed in both oxic and anoxic conditions. The analytical methods of thermal analysis together with the optical densities and paramagnetic behaviour are suitable and effective tools for studying structure–property relationships characterizing the origin and formation process of HAs in various environmental conditions.

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Drained organic soils under agriculture — The more degraded the soil the higher the specific basal respiration

Cited by 33 publications

References 76 publications

Stocks of organic carbon in German agricultural soils—Key results of the first comprehensive inventory

Stocks of organic carbon in German agricultural soils—Key results of the first comprehensive inventory

Estimation of Soil Organic Carbon Contents in Croplands of Bavaria from SCMaP Soil Reflectance Composites

Influence of Drainage on Peat Organic Matter: Implications for Development, Stability, and Transformation

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