scholarly journals Carbon and nitrogen stocks in soils under different forms of use in the Cerrado

Author(s):  
Adilson A. Costa ◽  
Bruno de O. Dias ◽  
Vânia da S. Fraga ◽  
Charles C. Santana ◽  
Núbia da Silva

ABSTRACT The soil is an important component in the biogeochemical cycling of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N). The objective of this study was to evaluate the changes caused by different types of land use on the C and N stocks in areas of Cerrado at different depths: area under conventional tillage, no-tillage, grazing, eucalyptus and area under native vegetation of Cerrado in the municipality of Luis Eduardo Magalhães, BA, Brazil. The highest C content was found for no-tillage area in the surface layer up to 10 cm; however, there was a decrease in its content along the depths. Areas under no-tillage had lower values of C in the surface layer (0-5 cm) and below 20 cm. Among these, C stocks were significantly lower compared to the use of grass and eucalyptus at the depth of up to 40 cm. Considering the depth of 0-60 cm, the highest C stock was found in areas under native vegetation, 62.81 Mg ha-1, followed by the area under cultivation with eucalyptus, 60.70 Mg ha-1. The lowest C stocks were found in areas under conventional use, 44.87 Mg ha-1. Conventional planting reduced N stocks by up to 61 and 56% when compared to areas under native Cerrado vegetation and eucalyptus plantations, respectively, both at a depth of up to 10 cm. Therefore, land use practices such as eucalyptus cultivation and no-tillage contribute to C and N storage over time.

Author(s):  
Adilson A. Costa ◽  
Bruno de O. Dias ◽  
Vânia da S. Fraga ◽  
Charles C. Santana ◽  
Thalita F. Sampaio ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT With the expansion of agricultural production, native Cerrado areas are replaced with other forms of land use. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate changes in the physical fractionation of organic carbon (C) in areas under different forms of land use in the Cerrado. The treatments, with five repetitions, corresponded to the following forms of use: area under conventional tillage, area under pasture plantation, area under eucalyptus plantation and area under native Cerrado vegetation, at the depths of 0-5, 5-10, 10-15 and 15-20 cm in the municipality of Luis Eduardo Magalhães, BA, Brazil. The highest C contents and stocks were found in the eucalyptus area, which were equal to those of the area under native Cerrado vegetation, while particulate C stocks were higher in the area under pasture at the depth up to 10 cm, not differing from the area under native Cerrado. Pasture and eucalyptus had positive effect on C management index, regardless of depth.


2002 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 401-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cimélio Bayer ◽  
Deborah Pinheiro Dick ◽  
Genicelli Mafra Ribeiro ◽  
Klaus Konrad Scheuermann

Land use and soil management may affect both labile and humified soil organic matter (SOM) fractions, but the magnitude of these changes is poorly known in subtropical environments. This study investigated effects of four land use and soil management systems (forest, native pasture, and conventional tillage and no-tillage in a wheat/soybean succession) on (i) total soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks (0 to 250mm depth) and on (ii) carbon (C) stocks in labile (coarse, light) and humified (mineral-associated, humic substances) SOM fractions (0 to 25mm depth), in a Hapludox soil from southern Brazil. In comparison to the adjacent forest site, conventionally tilled soil presented 36% (46.2Mg ha-1) less SOC in the 0 to 250mm depth and a widespread decrease in C stocks in all SOM fractions in the 0 to 25mm depth. The coarse (>53 mum) and light (<1kg dm-3) SOM fractions were the most affected under no-tillage, showing 393% (1.22Mg C ha-1) and 289% (0.55Mg C ha-1) increases, respectively, in relation to conventional tillage. Similar results were observed for mineral-associated SOM and humic substance C pools (34% and 38% increases, respectively) under no-tillage. Compared with labile SOM fraction results, the percentual increments on C stocks in humified fractions were smaller; but in absolute terms this C pool yielded the highest increases (3.06 and 2.95Mg C ha-1, respectively). These results showed that both labile and humified organic matter are better protected under the no-tillage system, and consequently less vulnerable to mineralization. Humified SOM stabilization process involving interactions with variable charge minerals is probably important in maintaining and restoring soil and environmental quality in tropical and subtropical regions.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Linsler ◽  
Jacqueline Gerigk ◽  
Ilka Schmoock ◽  
Rainer Georg Jörgensen ◽  
Martin Potthoff

&lt;p&gt;Reduced tillage is assumed to be a suitable practice to maintain and promote microbial biomass and microbial activity in the soil. The microbial biomass in particular is considered as a sensitive indicator for detecting soil disturbances. The objective of this study was to quantify the influence of different tillage practices on microbial parameters in the soil. Furthermore, we analyzed the relation of those microbial parameters with site-specific conditions.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;To get a deeper insight in that topic, soils from different fields of agricultural farms with different tillage practices in France (12 fields), Romania (15 fields) and Sweden (17 fields) were examined within the &amp;#8220;SoilMan project&amp;#8221;. The tillage practices were no-tillage (absence of any tillage), minimum tillage (non-inversion tillage for instance by chisel plough or cultivator) and conventional tillage (inversion tillage by ploughing), all of which were carried out for at least five years prior to sampling. Soil samples were taken in spring 2018 from all fields under winter wheat (Triticum aestivum) at three soil depths (0-10 cm, 10-20 cm, 20-30 cm). As microbial parameters we measured microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen contents, ergosterol contents (as proxy for fungi) and basal respiration rates. For site-specific conditions we measured soil organic carbon, total nitrogen and total phosphorus contents, texture, pH and the soil water content.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Results show that microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen were more affected by soil type and soil texture as well as climatic conditions (mean precipitation and temperature) than by tillage practices. For instance, an increased clay content had a positive effect on the microbial biomass and, in addition to the higher average annual temperature, explained the generally low values &amp;#8203;&amp;#8203;in France. The lack of inversion tillage primarily led to stratified levels of soil organic carbon, microbial biomass carbon and ergosterol contents, which can be explained by the lack of crop residue incorporation. There were hardly any differences in microbial indicators between the tillage intensities when looking at the whole of the sampled soil profile (0-30 cm). In France, the microbial biomass carbon / soil organic carbon ratio was lower for no-tillage than for conventional tillage, which may indicate, among other things, that the mechanically ground organic matter incorporated into the soil under conventional tillage was better colonized by microorganisms. However, this effect could not be confirmed in the other countries. The metabolic quotient was generally increased at the lowest sampled depth (20-30 cm), irrespective of the cultivation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We can conclude that the soil tillage intensity influenced the distribution of microbial biomass carbon and soil organic carbon contents more strongly than the total amounts in the sampled soil profile and that the soil texture had a greater impact on microbial soil properties than the agricultural management practice.&lt;/p&gt;


Soil Research ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 717 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. F. C. Leite ◽  
E. S. Mendonça ◽  
P. L. O. A. Machado ◽  
E. S. Matos

A 15-year experiment in a clayey Red-Yellow Podzolic in the tropical highlands of Viçosa, Brazil, was studied in 2000, aiming to evaluate the impact of different management systems (no tillage, disk plowing, heavy scratcher + disk plowing, and heavy scratched) on the total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), and several organic carbon pools. A natural forest, adjacent to the experimental area, was used as reference. The greatest TOC and TN as well as microbial biomass C (CMB), light fraction C (CFL), and labile organic carbon (CL) stocks were observed in the Atlantic Forest, compared with all other systems. The long-term cultivation (±70 years) of this area, prior to the installation of the experiment, has led to soil degradation, slowing the C recovery. No tillage had the higher C and N stocks and greater CL pool at the surface (0–10 cm), indicating improvement in soil nutrient status, although none of the systems presented potential to sequester C-CO2. Sustainable tropical agricultural systems should involve high residue input and conservative soil management in order to act as a C-CO2 sink. The C stocks in the CMB, CFL, and CL compartments were more reduced in relation to the natural vegetation with higher intensity management than the TOC stocks. This result indicates that these C compartments are more sensitive to changes in the soil management.


2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 3767-3793 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. M. R. Petrescu ◽  
R. Abad-Viñas ◽  
G. Janssens-Maenhout ◽  
V. Blujdea ◽  
G. Grassi

Abstract. While the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR) focuses on global estimates for the full set of anthropogenic activities, the Land-Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) sector might be the most diverse and most challenging to cover consistently for all world countries. Parties to UNFCCC are required to provide periodic estimates of GHG emissions, following the latest approved methodological guidance by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The aim of the current study is comparing the IPCC GPG 2003 and the IPCC AFOLU 2006 by calculating the C stock changes in living forest biomass, and then using computed results to extend the EDGAR database. For this purpose, we applied the IPCC Tier 1 method at global level, i.e. using spatially coarse activity data (i.e. area, obtained combining two different global forest maps: the Global Land Cover map and the eco-zones subdivision of the GEZ Ecological Zone map) in combination with the IPCC default C stocks and C stock change factors. Results for the C stock changes were calculated separately for Gains, Harvest, Net Deforestation and Fires (GFED3), for the years 1990, 2000, 2005 and 2010. At the global level, results obtained with the two set of IPCC guidance differed by about 40%, due to different assumptions and default factors. The IPCC Tier 1 method unavoidably introduced high uncertainties due to the "globalization" of parameters. When the results using IPCC AFOLU 2006 for Annex I countries are compared to other international datasets (UNFCCC, FAO) or scientific publications, it emerges a significant overestimation of the sink. For developing countries, we conclude that C stock change in forest remaining forest can hardly be estimated with Tier 1 method. Overall, confronting the IPCC 2003 and 2006 methodologies we conclude that IPCC 2006 suits best the needs of EDGAR and provide a consistent global picture of C stock changes in living forest biomass independent of country estimates.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 53
Author(s):  
Maísa Honório Belizário ◽  
Gregori Da Encarnação Ferrão ◽  
Carlos Clemente Cerri ◽  
Marcos Siqueira Neto

<p>Land-use change (LUC) is one of the main responsible for the loss of soil organic matter (SOM) in the form of CO<sub>2</sub> to atmosphere. The aims of the present study were i) evaluate soil C stocks due to coffee cultivation time after LUC and ii) evaluate the use of the organic compost from the by-product of bean processing as a source of SOM. The study was performed in dystrophic red latosol in the municipality of Patrocínio, MG, Brazil. Two evaluations were performed; i) three coffee (<em>Coffea arabica </em>L. var. Icatú Vermelho) growing areas with different implantation times (8, 15 and 37 years) in relation to Cerrado <em> stricto sensu <em> (reference); and ii) area cultivated with coffee (<em> C. arabica </em> var. Bourbon Vermelho) that received organic compost for four years. Soil was sampled in layers 0-5, 5-10 and 10-20 cm. In the first study, the C stock (0-20 cm) was higher under native vegetation (67 Mg C ha<sup>-1</sup>) in relation to the coffee growing (63 Mg C ha<sup>-1</sup>), however, did not differ significantly and showed subtle loss rates of 0.12; 0.06 and 0.02 Mg C ha<sup>-1</sup> year<sup>-1</sup> for 8, 15 and 37 years, respectively. In the second study, the organic compost applied to the soil increased the C stock (0-20 cm) to 4.6 Mg C ha<sup>-1</sup> and showed an accumulation rate of 1.15 Mg C ha<sup>-1</sup> year<sup>-1</sup>. Thus, it is concluded that C stocks is reduced in the soil due to LUC, however, the application of organic compost increased the supply of organic material, favoring the maintenance and even increasing the stock in the soil.</em></em></p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehari A. Tesfaye 1 ◽  
Andres Bravo Oviedo 2 ◽  
Felipe Bravo 3

Forests play a vital role in the natural global carbon cycle by capturing carbon from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and converting it into forest biomass. Forests sequester and stores more carbon than any terrestrial ecosystem and act as sources as well as sinks of CO2. However, the increasing rate of deforestation and the impact of changes in land use require a critical and updated look at what is happening in the tropics. This work emphasized the temporal variation of bulk density, carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) stock and concentration in four land-use categories: natural forest, tree plantations, crop-land and degraded soil along elevation gradient and soil depth. The study was conducted in the Central Highlands of Ethiopia, where deforestation and human pressure on native forests are exacerbated and erosion has caused extensive soil loss. We hypothesized that, there is temporal variation of C and N concentrations and stocks in native forest along elevation gradient, land use type, species and soil depth. Carbon and N concentrations and stock and bulk densities in mineral soil were analysed as repeated measures in an irregular vertical space ranging from 0–10 cm, 10–30 cm, 30–50 cm and 50–100 cm, using a linear mixed model approach in two-time scale period 2012 - 2017. Double observations in 2012 and 2017, were made from the forest floor were analysed by a general linear mixed model. There is significant variation in organic carbon and nitrogen stock along elevation gradient for forest floor. Results also indicated that soil depth is more important factor than elevation gradient in native forests, though C and N concentrations and stocks diminished near human settlements. Native forest stored on average more nitrogen than bare soil, cropland and plantations, respectively. Conversion of crop and degraded land into plantations ameliorated soil degradation conditions, but species selection did not affect carbon and nitrogen stocks. Thus, appropriate forest management options should be applied in order to increase productivity and carbon sink of Chilimo dryafromontane forest and adjacent land use. Temporal monitoring and reporting of carbon stock and concentration is also important to understand the role of Chilimo dryafromonate forest in climate change mitigation and adaptation agendas.


2016 ◽  
Vol 51 (9) ◽  
pp. 1652-1659 ◽  
Author(s):  
Getulio de Freitas Seben Junior ◽  
José Eduardo Corá ◽  
Rattan Lal

Abstract The objective of this work was to evaluate total soil carbon and nitrogen, as well as their contents in particulate and mineral-associated C fractions; to determine C stock and sequestration rates in the soil; and to verify the effect of C and N contents on soil aggregation, using different crop rotations and crop sequences under no-tillage. The study was carried out for nine years in a clayey Oxisol. The treatments consisted of different cropping systems formed by the combination of three summer crops (cropped until March) - corn (Zea mays) monocropping, soybean (Glycine max) monocropping, and soybean/corn rotation - and seven second crops (crop successions). Soil samples were taken at the 0.00-0.10-m layer for physical fractionation of C and N, and to determine soil aggregation by the wet method. Soybean monocropping increased C and N in particulate C fraction, while the crop systems with corn monocropping x pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan), corn monocropping x sun hemp (Crotalaria juncea), and soybean monocropping x corn as a crop succession increased total C in the soil. Greater rates of soil C sequestration were observed with soybean/corn rotation and with soybean monocropping, as well as with sun hemp as a second crop. The increase in total N increases soil C stock. Soil aggregation was most affected at particulate C fraction. Increases in soil N promote C addition to particulate fraction and enhance soil aggregation.


2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 1003-1014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elcio Liborio Balota ◽  
Ines Fumiko Ubukata Yada ◽  
Higo Furlan Amaral ◽  
Andre Shigueyoshi Nakatani ◽  
Mariangela Hungria ◽  
...  

Many forested areas have been converted to intensive agricultural use to satisfy food, fiber, and forage production for a growing world population. There is great interest in evaluating forest conversion to cultivated land because this conversion adversely affects several soil properties. We examined soil microbial, physical, and chemical properties in an Oxisol (Latossolo Vermelho distrófico) of southern Brazil 24 years after forest conversion to a perennial crop with coffee or annual grain crops (maize and soybeans) in conventional tillage or no-tillage. One goal was to determine which soil quality parameters seemed most sensitive to change. A second goal was to test the hypothesis that no-tillage optimized preservation of soil quality indicators in annual cropping systems on converted land. Land use significantly affected microbial biomass and its activity, C and N mineralization, and aggregate stability by depth. Cultivated sites had lower microbial biomass and mineralizable C and N than a forest used as control. The forest and no-tillage sites had higher microbial biomass and mineralizable C and N than the conventional tillage site, and the metabolic quotient was 65 and 43 % lower, respectively. Multivariate analysis of soil microbial properties showed a clear separation among treatments, displaying a gradient from conventional tillage to forest. Although the soil at the coffee site was less disturbed and had a high organic C content, the microbial activity was low, probably due to greater soil acidity and Al toxicity. Under annual cropping, microbial activity in no-tillage was double that of the conventional tillage management. The greater microbial activity in forest and no-tillage sites may be attributed, at least partially, to lower soil disturbance. Reducing soil disturbance is important for soil C sequestration and microbial activity, although control of soil pH and Al toxicity are also essential to maintain the soil microbial activity high.


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