Soil organic carbon along an altitudinal gradient in the Despeñaperros Natural Park, southern Spain

Abstract

Abstract. Soil organic carbon (SOC) is extremely important in the global carbon (C) cycle as C sequestration in non-disturbed soil ecosystems can be a C sink and mitigate greenhouse-gas-driven climate change. Soil organic carbon changes in space and time are relevant to understand the soil system and its role in the C cycle. This is why the influence of topographic position on SOC should be studied. Seven topographic positions from a toposequence between 607 and 1168 m were analyzed in the Despeñaperros Natural Park (Jaén, SW Spain). Depending on soil depth, one to three control sections (0-25, 25-50 and 75 cm) were sampled at each site. The SOC content in studied soils was below 30 g kg −1 and strongly decreases with depth. These results were related to the gravel content and to the bulk density. The SOC content from the topsoil (0-25 cm) varied largely through the altitudinal gradient ranging between 27.3 and 39.9 g kg −1 . The SOC stock (SOCS) varied between 53.8 and 158.0 Mg ha −1 in the studied area, which had been clearly conditioned by the topographic position. Therefore, results suggest that elevation should be included in SOCS models and estimations at local and regional scales.

Exclosures backed up with community-based soil and water conservation practices increased soil organic carbon stock and microbial biomass carbon distribution, in the northern highlands of Ethiopia

“…Soil organic carbon stock decreased with increasing depth due to decrease in organic carbon concentration and gravel content. Gravel content and SOC affect SOC stock [34,55]. The total SOC for the whole 30 cm soil depth was 44 Mg C ha −1 .…”

Relação Espacial do Carbono da Vegetação e Matéria Orgânica do Solo na Serra da Mantiqueira

“…Os solos funcionam como um sistema de apoio fundamental à vida no ecossistema e desempenham um papel vital na resiliência deste frente às condições geradas pelas mudanças climáticas causadas pelo homem, ou seja, muito mais que um grande reservatório de carbono, o solo funciona como mediador da produtividade e sustentabilidade do ambiente (Brevik, 2009;Rumpel & Kögel-Knabner, 2010;Brevik, 2013;Parras-Alcántara et al, 2015). Os atributos físico-químicos dos solos são muito influenciados pela matéria orgânica (MO), a qual corresponde ao maior reservatório de nutrientes para as plantas por estar diretamente relacionada a outras funções no solo, como a fertilidade da qual dependem sociedades e ecossistemas (Mafra et al, 2008;Trumbore & Czimczik, 2008).…”

Effects of spent mushroom compost application on the physicochemical properties of a degraded soil

“…The rate of decomposition of organic amendments and SOC remains in the long term varies with the intrinsic quality of the amendment (Lashermes et al, 2009;Novara et al, 2015). Soil organic matter content is one of the most important soil quality indicators of soil recovery (Mahmoud and Abd El-Kader, 2015;Parras-Alcántara et al, 2015;Pulido Moncada et al, 2015) and is a good sign for soil quality (Gelaw et al, 2015). The quality of soil organic matter, soil structure, microbial activity, and rainfall intensity are, in fact, important parameters that should be evaluated and correlated to assess the fate of carbon during transportation .…”