Texture, Climate, and Cultivation Effects on Soil Organic Matter Content in U.S. Grassland Soils

Burke, Ingrid C.; Yonker, C. M.; Parton, William J.; Cole, C. V.; Flach, Klaus W.; Schimel, David

doi:10.2136/sssaj1989.03615995005300030029x

Cited by 798 publications

(561 citation statements)

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“…It is known from field measurements that SOC content tends to be higher when C mineralization rates are reduced, such as in soils with a high clay or clay plus silt content (Hassink 1994). Clay-rich soils often occur at sites with high P (Burke et al 1989), which is not indicated by the regression analysis, whereas the direct influence of texture is very clear (Fig. 5).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Pasture responses to elevated temperature and doubled CO2 concentration: assessing the spatial pattern across an alpine landscape

Riedo¹,

Gyalistras²,

Fuhrer³

2001

Clim. Res.

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Climatic change and increasing atmospheric CO 2 concentration are expected to have significant effects on grassland ecosystems, but the magnitude of the responses may vary strongly across complex landscapes. A combination of the mechanistic pasture simulation model PaSim, statistical interpolation of climate parameters, and stochastic weather generation was used to examine the range and spatial distribution of the long-term responses of grazed grassland ecosystems to step changes in temperature and CO 2 across the 250 km 2 alpine Davos/Dischma region in Switzerland. 750 sites were considered, covering an altitude range from 1500 to 2700 m above sea level. PaSim was driven with sitespecific hourly weather data, georeferenced input data for topography, and soil and vegetation characteristics. A seasonally uniform temperature increase by 2°C raised the mean evapotranspiration (ET ) from about 200 to 300 mm yr -1 , and net primary production (NPP) from about 0.2 to 0.3 kg C m -2 yr -1 . Doubling CO 2 to 700 ppm partially offset the increase in ET, but caused an additional increase in NPP. The effects of the different scenarios on the simulated mean labile soil organic carbon content (C fast ) were small, and on the order of +1% due to increased temperature and + 5% due to increased CO 2 . Largest absolute changes in ET were obtained for sites with ample precipitation, whereas relative changes correlated best with altitude. Largest absolute changes in NPP were obtained for the most productive lower sites, whereas at higher sites absolute changes became small, but relative changes were again largest. Most pronounced increases in C fast of around 10% (equivalent to about 0.3 kg C m -2 ) resulted from the combined temperature and CO 2 increase and occurred mainly at the higher elevation sites. For all parameters examined the variability of absolute system responses across sites was generally larger than the magnitude of the mean changes resulting from any scenario. Statistical analysis of the relationship between a small set of site-specific input parameters and model outputs revealed that the most important factors determining absolute system responses under all scenarios were altitude and aspect for ET, temperature for NPP, and soil texture (i.e. clay fraction) for C fast . Absolute and relative changes due to the assumed changes in CO 2 and/or temperature depended less clearly on these factors, in particular for C fast . These results show that the interaction of the effects of elevated CO 2 and increased temperature with local site conditions causes a spatially inhomogeneous distribution of grassland responses in a topographically complex landscape, but that absolute system responses for a given temperature and CO 2 regime can be explained with very high accuracy by a small number of environmental variables.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Pasture responses to elevated temperature and doubled CO2 concentration: assessing the spatial pattern across an alpine landscape

Riedo¹,

Gyalistras²,

Fuhrer³

2001

Clim. Res.

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“…In South Africa, approximately 30% of all plants sold in traditional medicine markets grow in grasslands (Williams et al, 2000). Grasslands also sequester carbon as soil organic matter stored mostly below ground (Burke et al, 1989;Sala and Paruelo, 1997), reducing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere that contributes to climate change. One of the most valuable services provided by grasslands is that of water supply.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying priority areas for ecosystem service management in South African grasslands

Egoh

Reyers

Rouget

et al. 2011

Journal of Environmental Management

164

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a b s t r a c tGrasslands provide many ecosystem services required to support human well-being and are home to a diverse fauna and flora. Degradation of grasslands due to agriculture and other forms of land use threaten biodiversity and ecosystem services. Various efforts are underway around the world to stem these declines. The Grassland Programme in South Africa is one such initiative and is aimed at safeguarding both biodiversity and ecosystem services. As part of this developing programme, we identified spatial priority areas for ecosystem services, tested the effect of different target levels of ecosystem services used to identify priority areas, and evaluated whether biodiversity priority areas can be aligned with those for ecosystem services. We mapped five ecosystem services (below ground carbon storage, surface water supply, water flow regulation, soil accumulation and soil retention) and identified priority areas for individual ecosystem services and for all five services at the scale of quaternary catchments. Planning for individual ecosystem services showed that, depending on the ecosystem service of interest, between 4% and 13% of the grassland biome was required to conserve at least 40% of the soil and water services. Thirty-four percent of the biome was needed to conserve 40% of the carbon service in the grassland. Priority areas identified for five ecosystem services under three target levels (20%, 40%, 60% of the total amount) showed that between 17% and 56% of the grassland biome was needed to conserve these ecosystem services. There was moderate to high overlap between priority areas selected for ecosystem services and already-identified terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity priority areas. This level of overlap coupled with low irreplaceability values obtained when planning for individual ecosystem services makes it possible to combine biodiversity and ecosystem services in one plan using systematic conservation planning.

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“…Paustian et al [1992] used CENTURY to study influences of organic amendments and N fertilization on SOM in long-term plots. A revised version of CENTURY was tested against a multiyear, multisite data set on plant production and soil C and N dynamics in several grassland ecosystems and then used to simulate the responses to general circulation model derived climate change [Ojima et We also present predictions from empirical regression models reported by Burke et al [1989] and Schimel et al [1994]. In a companion paper [Peng and Apps, this issue] we report use of the model to examine carbon dynamics along the BFTCS under different scenarios of climate change.…”

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confidence: 99%

Simulating carbon dynamics along the Boreal Forest Transect Case Study (BFTCS) in central Canada: 1. Model testing

Peng¹,

Apps²,

Price³

et al. 1998

Global Biogeochemical Cycles

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Texture, Climate, and Cultivation Effects on Soil Organic Matter Content in U.S. Grassland Soils

Cited by 798 publications

References 0 publications

Pasture responses to elevated temperature and doubled CO2 concentration: assessing the spatial pattern across an alpine landscape

Pasture responses to elevated temperature and doubled CO2 concentration: assessing the spatial pattern across an alpine landscape

Identifying priority areas for ecosystem service management in South African grasslands

Simulating carbon dynamics along the Boreal Forest Transect Case Study (BFTCS) in central Canada: 1. Model testing

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