Stable isotope technique in the evaluation of tillage and fertilizer effects on soil carbon and nitrogen sequestration and water use efficiency

Stable Isotopes in Greenhouse Gases from Soil: A Review of Theory and Application

“…As one of the most powerful tools for understanding ecological and environmental processes, many stable isotope methods have been used to record environmental information and monitor the ecological process at different spatial and temporal scales, or address issues that are intractable using other methods [14]. The use of stable isotopes ( 12 C and 13 C, 14 N and 15 N, 16 O and 18 O) allows the identification of greenhouse gas components and drivers. Carbon isotopes are only a little fractionated in trophic chains and are therefore more suitable as a marker, whereas nitrogen (N) isotopes are considerably fractionated in δ 13 C, δ 15 N and δ 18…”

“…The use of stable isotopes ( 12 C and 13 C, 14 N and 15 N, 16 O and 18 O) allows the identification of greenhouse gas components and drivers. Carbon isotopes are only a little fractionated in trophic chains and are therefore more suitable as a marker, whereas nitrogen (N) isotopes are considerably fractionated in δ 13 C, δ 15 N and δ 18…”

“…where R SAMPLE = 13 C/ 12 C, 15 N/ 14 N, or 18 O/ 16 O of the sample and R STANDARD = 13 C/ 12 C of the PDB standard (0.0112372), Air-N 2 for N (0.003676) or Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water (V-SMOW) for O [21].…”

Effects of Depth and Land Cover on Soil Properties as Indicated by Carbon and Nitrogen-Stable Isotope Analysis

“…Recent studies on SOC storage and turnover have employed the evaluation of 13 C and 15 N natural abundances as a technique to determine changes in C and N dynamics in relation to land use/land cover changes [16][17][18]. For instance, stable C and N isotopes have been previously employed to gain knowledge of the mechanisms of plant litter decay, SOM evolution, and turnover [19][20][21], to understand the sources of organic carbon [19][20][21][22], the origins of soil N among different ecosystems or soil disturbances as a result of change in land use [18,[23][24], and nitrogen cycling and mineralization [25][26]. It is noteworthy that all the studies mentioned above are related to the topsoil.…”

“…This implied that the SOC was more intensively decomposed in the topsoil of the plantation. Additionally, fertilizer application has also been reported to infl uence the SOC and δ 13 C [18,61]. According to [62] NO 3-N sources cause an increase in soil pH, which usually decreased P uptake by plants, which in turn leads to an increase in δ Stable Isotope (δ 15 N) Analysis Table 2 presents the results of the effect of soil depths on δ…”