Sulfur Fractions and Carbon, Nitrogen, and Sulfur Relationships in Grassland, Forest, and Associated Transitional Soils

Abstract

The amounts of total S, organic N, organic C, and HI‐reducible‐S obtained from Ap layers of 54 soils collected from five major soil zones in Saskatchewan varied considerably with location within any one zone. However, the mean C/S, N/S ratios and the percentage of total S as HI‐reducible S of the soil organic matter showed similar and consistent trends. The C/N/S ratios ranged from 58:6.4:1 in the arid Chernozemic Brown soils to 129:10.6:1 in the leached Grey Wooded soils. The percentage of total S as HI‐reducible was approximately 50% in the Chernozemic soils in contrast to 36% in the Grey Wooded soils.

Soil organic sulfur forms and dynamics in the Great Plains of North America as influenced by long-term cultivation and climate

“…On the other hand, the lower SOS level in the mesic to hyperthermic temperature regimes; where the MAT is relatively high (11 to 22 8C) and the soils hardly freeze in winter could be explained by the higher SOM turnover and organic S mineralization rather than by differences in growing season. Our results, however, differ with the results of Bettany et al (1973), where the percentage of total S decreased as we go from Aridic Haploborall to Typic Cryoboralf in Canada.…”

Spodosol–Histosol evolution in the Krkonoše National Park (CZ)

“…Acid precipitation in the last decades has been claimed as a major cause of forest decline in the Krkonoše National Park (Hruška and Cudlín, 2003) and the main cause of acidification is ascribed to a high concentration of SO 2 in the air due to the electric power plants which use a high-sulphur brown coal from the local open-pit mines in Tertiary deposits. The large concentration of S in FA can be attributed to the formation of C-S linkages that produced high-molecular weight materials (Bettany et al, 1973;Vannier et al, 1993), with a reduced ability to migrate. Thus, S-rich rain could interfere with the natural podzolisation process not only by enhancing acidity, but also through crosslinking reactions that could affect organic matter translocation and dynamics.…”

Effects of a single cycle of tillage on long-term no-till prairie soils

“…The transition from Brown to Black to Gray soil zones moving from southwest to northeast across Saskatchewan, represents an environmental gradient of increasing available water and decreased temperature (Bettany et al 1973). The sites were at Central Butte (Brown soil zone), Rosthern (Black soil zone), and Tisdale (Gray soil zone).…”