scholarly journals From Laboratory to Proximal Sensing Spectroscopy for Soil Organic Carbon Estimation—A Review

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodora Angelopoulou ◽  
Athanasios Balafoutis ◽  
George Zalidis ◽  
Dionysis Bochtis
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Soil Organic Matter ◽  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Near Infrared ◽  
Wavelength Region ◽  
Soil Condition ◽  
Short Wave ◽  
Proximal Sensing

Rapid and cost-effective soil properties estimations are considered imperative for the monitoring and recording of agricultural soil condition for the implementation of site-specific management practices. Conventional laboratory measurements are costly and time-consuming, and, therefore, cannot be considered appropriate for large datasets. This article reviews laboratory and proximal sensing spectroscopy in the visible and near infrared (VNIR)–short wave infrared (SWIR) wavelength region for soil organic carbon and soil organic matter estimation as an alternative to analytical chemistry measurements. The aim of this work is to report the progress made in the last decade on data preprocessing, calibration approaches, and system configurations used for VNIR-SWIR spectroscopy of soil organic carbon and soil organic matter estimation. We present and compare the results of over fifty selective studies and discuss the factors that affect the accuracy of spectroscopic measurements for both laboratory and in situ applications.

Changes in soil organic carbon and nitrogen after 47 years with different tillage, stubble and fertiliser management in a Vertisol of north-eastern Australia

Soil Research ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 346
Author(s):  
K. L. Page ◽  
R. C. Dalal ◽  
S. H. Reeves ◽  
W. J. Wang ◽  
Somasundaram Jayaraman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Soil Organic Matter ◽  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Crop Residues ◽  
Residue Management ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Over Time

No-till (NT) farming has been widely adopted to assist in reducing erosion, lowering fuel costs, conserving soil moisture and improving soil physical, chemical and biological characteristics. Improvements in soil characteristics are often driven by the greater soil organic matter accumulation (as measured by soil organic carbon (SOC)) in NT compared to conventional tillage (CT) farming systems. However, to fully understand the effect of NT it is important to understand temporal changes in SOC by monitoring over an extended period. We investigated the long-term effect of NT and stubble retention (SR) on changes in SOC and total soil nitrogen (STN) using results from an experiment that has been running for 50 years in a semi-arid subtropical region of north-eastern Australia. In this experiment, the effects of tillage (CT vs NT), residue management (stubble burning (SB) vs SR), and nitrogen (N) fertiliser (0 and 90 kg-N ha–1) were measured in a balanced factorial experiment on a Vertisol (Ustic Pellusert). The use of NT, SR and N fertiliser generally improved SOC (by up to 12.8%) and STN stocks (by up to 31.7%) in the 0–0.1 m layer relative to CT, SB and no N fertiliser, with the greatest stocks observed where all three treatments were used in combination. However, declines in SOC (up to 20%) and STN (up to 25%) occurred in all treatments over the course of the experiment, indicating that changes in management practices were unable to prevent a loss of soil organic matter over time in this farming system. However, the NT and SR treatments did lose less SOC than CT and SB treatments, and SR also reduced STN loss. The δ13C analysis of samples collected in 2008 and 2015 highlighted that crop residues have significantly contributed to SOC stocks at the site and that their contribution is increasing over time.

scholarly journals Assessing soil carbon and soil quality for sustainable agricultural systems in tropical hillslope soils using spectroscopic methods

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Bunjirtluk Jintaridth
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Soil Organic Matter ◽  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Quality ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Soil Management ◽  
Agricultural Systems ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The World

Soil quality is a concept that integrates physical, chemical, and biological components and processes of soil across landscapes. Identifying and developing appropriate methods to quantify and assess changes in soil quality are necessary for evaluating soil degradation and improving management practices. Many parameters that are associated with soil quality depend on soil organic matter (SOM) levels and composition. The objectives of this research were to: 1) conduct a literature review of soil quality assessment techniques to evaluate soil quality across a wide-range of environments and agricultural practices; 2) determine if some standard soil sampling and analytical protocols could be identified or developed to enhance soil quality comparisons across a wide range of environments around the world; and 3) assess the efficacy of spectroscopic-based (i.e. near-infrared, mid-infrared, and visible range) analytical methods to evaluate soil organic matter fractions and soil quality. To assess soil quality for sustainable agricultural systems in hillslope soils using spectroscopic methods, surface soil samples (0-20 cm) were collected from hillslope agricultural sites in Bolivia, the Philippines and Indonesia which had differences in length of fallow, levels of soil degradation, and cultivation by landscape position. To determine the efficacy of spectroscopic-based on visible range, the use of the potassium permanganate test (MnOxC) for active organic carbon was studied. The MnOxC test was generally responsive to a range of fallow lengths among different agricultural fields and communities in Umala Municipality in Bolivia. A major objective of fallowing agricultural fields in this region is to restore soil fertility in the field after cropping. This general increase in MnOxC with increased length fallowing may be due to inputs of residue and roots from regrowth of native vegetation after cropping in fallowed areas and possible manure inputs from sheep that generally graze these fallow areas. In addition, higher concentrations of MnOxC were generally observed in non-degraded soil compared to that of degraded soil in all sampled communities in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Comparisons of soil quality among agroforestry and nonagroforestry sites were studied near Bogor, Indonesia. Both agroforestry and nonagroforestry sites had been managed with different types and rates (low, medium, and high) of amendments including manure, compost and chemical fertilizer. Soil MnOxC was generally higher with increasing amounts of added animal manure and in agroforestry areas compared to that of non-agroforestry areas. A set of soil samples was collected along a hill-slope transect from the top to the bottom of agricultural valley on Mindanao Island in the Philippines. The transect across the landscape was divided into summit, shoulder, backslope, footslope and toeslope landscape positions. Soil MnOxC from cultivated fields areas at each landscape position were generally lower than noncultivated areas at similar landscape positions. Among the non-cultivated sites, soil MnOxC was the highest at the summit position and the lowest at the backslope positions while soil MnOxC among cultivated sites were relatively similar across the hill-slope transect. This comparison of the use of the soil MnOxC test to determine changes in active C among a wide range of environmental conditions, cropping systems and soil management practices among agroecosystems with hillslopes in tropical countries around the world indicates that the soil MnOxC test is a sensitive indicator to assess changes in active C with changes in crop and soil management. Several advantages to using this procedure include its ease of use that requires a minimal of training for the field method, its low relative cost and growing research results that facilitate interpretation of the test results. Therefore, this method has potential for supporting management decisions, and sustainable management of agricultural systems in tropical hillslope ecosystems. The ability of visible/near-infrared (VNIR) spectroscopy to estimate soil organic carbon and carbon fractions from diverse soils in tropical hillslope agroecosystems around the world that were under different soil management and cropping systems was evaluated in this research. It was shown that VNIR spectroscopy could be an effective technique to estimate SOC and soil organic carbon fractions for a wide range of soils from tropical hillslope agroecosystems around the world. Several potential advantages of use of VNIR compared to conventional soil testing methods in developing countries are that it may allow for simultaneous evaluation of several soil properties and it can be done rapidly and possibly in the field. Diffuse Reflectance Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (DRIFT) is considered to be one of the most sensitive infrared techniques for analyzing the structural composition of soil organic matter. The benefit of the DRIFT technique is the ability to characterize the functional group composition of heterogeneous materials with minimal sample preparation. Results showed that this method can be used to characterize the functional groups of heterogeneous soil organic materials and it may be a more direct method to determine changes in soil organic matter and soil quality caused by soil management practices than several other chemical and spectral techniques. The high resolution of the spectra and quantitative estimations of functional groups can be used to analyze soil organic carbon composition. Therefore, in future work this technique has great potential to be an accurate and simple method for helping to understand the changes in the composition of soil organic carbon due to soil organic management practices and to estimate changes in soil quality resulting from those practices in these hillslope agroecosystems.

scholarly journals Irrigated sugarcane crops improve the quality of soil organic carbon over time

2022 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 283-296
Author(s):  
Verônica Aparecida Santos Ferreira Soares ◽  
◽  
Leidivan Almeida Frazão ◽  
Rodinei Facco Pegoraro ◽  
Regynaldo Arruda Sampaio ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Soil Organic Matter ◽  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Soil Surface ◽  
Soil Tillage ◽  
Native Vegetation ◽  
Physical Attributes ◽  
Over Time

The substitution of native vegetation in agricultural systems can cause several changes in the chemical and physical soil attributes, and in the dynamics of soil organic carbon. This study aimed to evaluate changes in soil physical attributes and carbon stock in soil organic matter fractions in irrigated sugarcane crops, as a function of land use and straw management practices over time, in the North of Minas Gerais State, Brazil. Four sugarcane fields with different ages and management systems were studied: Cane 6, Cane 7, Cane 8, and Cane 10. The data obtained were compared with a native vegetation area located near the sugarcane fields, and used as reference for unmanaged soil. In each system, soil samples were collected in the 0-10, 10-20, and 20-30 cm depth layers, to determine the physical attributes, the total organic carbon, and the physical fractions of the soil organic matter. We found that the sugarcane management with the maintenance of a part of the straw on the soil surface contributes to the preservation of the soil structure and the most stable fractions of organic carbon over time. However, in the regions with high annual mean temperature and in the irrigated systems, the soil tillage for the renewal of the sugarcane fields significantly decreases the total soil organic carbon.

Maximum soil organic matter decomposition along temperature gradient in Colombian topsoils: Dry Forests

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerardo Ojeda ◽  
Hernando García ◽  
Susanne Woche ◽  
Jorg Bachmann ◽  
Georg Guggenberger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Soil Organic Matter ◽  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Temperature Gradient ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Respiration ◽  
Maximum Rate ◽  
Field Capacity ◽  
Total Carbon ◽  
Som Decomposition

<p><strong>Contextualization</strong>: In 2011, it was published a curious conundrum, which forms the basis of the present study: why, when organic matter is thermodynamically unstable, does it persist in soils, sometimes for thousands of years? The question challenges the idea that the recalcitrant or labile character of soil organic matter (SOM) is a sufficient argument to ensure SOM persistence. Temperature could play an important role in SOM decomposition, especially in tropics. Particularly, tropical dry forest (TDF) represents an important ecosystem with unique biodiversity and fertile soils in Colombia. At present, the increase in population density and consequently, in the demands of energy and arable land, have led to its degradation.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Knowledge gap</strong>: Although the mentioned question was formulated several years ago, it has still to be answered, hence limiting the development of new soil organic carbon (SOC) models or the quantification of its ecosystem services. A key point, in terms of soil carbon storage, is to determine the maximum rate of CO<sub>2</sub> emissions from soils (Rmax). Traditionally, it is considered that Rmax occurs at the 50% of field capacity. Unfortunately, information about the environmental conditions under which this maximum occurs is scarce.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Purpose</strong>: The main objectives of this study were: (a) determine the maximum rate of soil respiration or CO<sub>2</sub> emissions from soil in TDF soils and (b) to estimate the main environmental drivers of maximum SOM decomposition along a temperature gradient (20°, 30°, 40°C) in incubated soils.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Methodology</strong>: Soils pertained to permanent plots were sampled in six different TDF of Colombia. The evolution of CO<sub>2</sub> emissions (monitored by an infrared gas analyser), relative humidity and soil temperature were recorded in time on incubated soils samples. Temperature was maintained constant at 20°C, 30°C and 40°C during soil incubations under soil drying conditions. Additionally, elemental composition (Fe, Ca, O, Al, Si, K, Mg, Na) of SOM and chemical composition of soil organic carbon (SOC: aromatic-C, O-alkyl-C, Aliphatic-C, Phenolic and Ketonic-C) were determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Results and conclusions</strong>: The majority of TDF soil samples (90.7%) presented that its peak of CO<sub>2</sub> emissions occurs at soil-water contents higher than saturation (0 MPa), at 20°, 30° and 40°C. Clearly, to consider that the maximum soil respiration rate could be observed at the 50% of field capacity, underestimated the real maximum value of carbon mineralization (48-68%.) Globally, increases in the Rmax values corresponded to increases in electrical conductivity, soil desorption rates, total carbon and nitrogen contents, and decreases in bulk density (BD) and aggregate stability. Taking into account the temperature gradient, increments in calcium and aromatic carbon contents corresponded to decrements in Rmax values but only at 30°C and 40°C, respectively. Some authors indicated that at high soil moisture contents, iron reduction could be release protected carbon. However, no significant relation between Fe and Rmax was observed. Consequently, physical and chemical properties related to SOM accessibility and decomposability by microbial activity, were the main drivers and controls of maximum SOM decomposition rates.</p>

Modelling dynamic interactions between soil structure and soil organic matter

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Jarvis ◽  
Elsa Coucheney ◽  
Claire Chenu ◽  
Anke Herrmann ◽  
Thomas Keller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Carbon Sequestration ◽  
Soil Organic Matter ◽  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Physical Properties ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Animal Manure ◽  
Soil Bulk Density ◽  
Organic Carbon Content

<p>The aggregated structure of soil is known to reduce rates of soil organic matter (SOM) decomposition and therefore influence the potential for long-term carbon sequestration. In turn, the storage and turnover of SOM strongly determines soil aggregation and thus the physical properties of soil. The two-way nature of these interactions has not yet been explicitly considered in soil organic matter models. In this study, we present and describe a new model of these dynamic feedbacks between SOM storage, soil pore structure and soil physical properties. We show the results of a test of the model against measurements made during 61 years in a field trial located near Uppsala (Sweden) in two treatments with different OM inputs (bare fallow, animal manure). The model was able to successfully reproduce long-term trends in soil bulk density and organic carbon content (SOC), as well as match limited data on soil pore size distribution and surface elevation. The results suggest that the model approach presented here could prove useful in analyses of the effects of soil and crop management practices and climate change on the long-term potential for soil organic carbon sequestration.</p>

scholarly journals Spatial Distribution of Soil Organic Matter and Soil Organic Carbon Stocks in Semi-Arid Area of Northeastern Syria

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 415-432
Author(s):  
Hussam Hag Husein ◽  
Mohammad Mousa ◽  
Wahib Sahwan ◽  
Rupert Bäumler ◽  
Bernhard Lucke
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Soil Organic Matter ◽  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon ◽  
Carbon Stocks ◽  
Arid Area ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon Stocks ◽  
Semi Arid

The Contribution of Some Soil and Crop Management Practice on Soil Organic Carbon Reserves: Review

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-274
Author(s):  
Agegnehu Shibabaw ◽  
Melkamu Alemeyehu
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon ◽  
Crop Rotation ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Management Practice ◽  
Crop Management ◽  
Residue Management ◽  
Agricultural Sustainability ◽  
Important Indicator

Soil organic carbon is the most important attribute and chosen as the most important indicator of soil and environment quality and agricultural sustainability. Maintaining of soil carbon stocks and other nutrient proved as the most important challenge of arable lands. It depends on soil type, surrounding climate and long term land use. Studies of various research reports indicates that agricultural management practice; crop rotation, residue management, reduced tillage, green manuring and organic matter amendment has identified for its contribution to the improvement of soil organic matter stocks and some other nutrients.Implementing of reduced or no tillage operation has underlined in increasing organic carbon stock of the soil through delaying of organic matter decomposition and N mineralization.Long term adoption of legume based crop rotation notably increases soil organic carbon and N contents, helped with natural gift of atmospheric nitrogen fixation. Organic sources of fertilizer are reservoirs of plant nutrients and organic carbon, and hence amendment with adequate and quality manure ultimately enhances the soil nutrients and SOC stocks of the soil. In general, soil and crop management practices allow the soil to sequester more atmospheric carbon in to the soil.The circumstances ultimately contribute to agricultural sustainability, environmental and soil quality and mitigation of climate change at large. 

scholarly journals Characteristics and Driving Mechanism of Soil Organic Carbon Content in Farmland of Beijing Plain: Implication for the Fate of Engineered Polymers in Soil

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Lanlan Zhang ◽  
Zhen Li ◽  
Shiwen Zhang ◽  
Shasha Xia ◽  
Hongguang Zou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Soil Organic Matter ◽  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon ◽  
Carbon Content ◽  
Organic Fertilizer ◽  
Driving Mechanism ◽  
Organic Carbon Content ◽  
Beijing Plain ◽  
Significant Difference

Soil organic matter (SOM), as a kind of natural polymers, affects the migration and transport of ions and particles in soil system due to its surface characteristics and interaction and then causes significant changes in soil quality such as soil fertility loss and pollutant transfer. It is of great importance to study the temporal and spatial evolution of soil organic matter and its driving mechanism for soil health management. This study aims to fully reveal the evolution characteristics and driving mechanism of soil organic carbon (SOC) in farmland of the Beijing plain based on a six-year site monitoring. According to the research results, there is a significant difference in the overall soil organic content during the 6-year period. The temporal stability of SOC is moderate, and it is inversely proportional to SOC content in terms of spatial distribution. SOC content increases as organic fertilizer input rises, and an extra unit (15 kg·ha−1) of organic fertilizer input leads to an increase of 0.057 g·kg−1 in SOC content. The soil with higher clay content exhibits higher SOC content. The organic carbon content in different soil texture types increases with time, and there is a significant difference between the increases in medium loam and light loam. The grain field plantation system exhibited declining SOC content, while the protected vegetable fields, open vegetable fields, and orchards all showed an increase in SOC content. According to our results, the SOC content of farmland in the plain areas of Beijing is largely dependent on the input of organic carbon if other conditions remain unchanged or exhibit insignificant changes.

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