Litter decay controlled by temperature, not soil properties, affecting future soil carbon.
Edward G. Gregorich,H. Henry Janzen,Benjamin H. Ellert,Bobbi L. Helgason,Budong Qian,Bernie J. Zebarth,Denis A. Angers,Ronald P. Beyaert,Craig F. Drury,Scott Duguid,William E. May,Brian McConkey,Miles Dyck +12 more
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In this article, a two-pool exponential decay model expressing undecomposed carbon simply as a function of thermal time accurately described the kinetics of decomposition of plant litter.Abstract:
Widespread global changes, including rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations, climate warming and loss of biodiversity, are predicted for this century; all of these will affect terrestrial ecosystem processes like plant litter decomposition. Conversely, increased plant litter decomposition can have potential carbon-cycle feedbacks on atmospheric CO2 levels, climate warming and biodiversity. But predicting litter decomposition is difficult because of many interacting factors related to the chemical, physical and biological properties of soil, as well as to climate and agricultural management practices. We applied 13C-labelled plant litter to soil at ten sites spanning a 3500-km transect across the agricultural regions of Canada and measured its decomposition over five years. Despite large differences in soil type and climatic conditions, we found that the kinetics of litter decomposition were similar once the effect of temperature had been removed, indicating no measurable effect of soil properties. A two-pool exponential decay model expressing undecomposed carbon simply as a function of thermal time accurately described kinetics of decomposition. (R2 = 0.94; RMSE = 0.0508). Soil properties such as texture, cation exchange capacity, pH and moisture, although very different among sites, had minimal discernible influence on decomposition kinetics. Using this kinetic model under different climate change scenarios, we projected that the time required to decompose 50% of the litter (i.e. the labile fractions) would be reduced by 1–4 months, whereas time required to decompose 90% of the litter (including recalcitrant fractions) would be reduced by 1 year in cooler sites to as much as 2 years in warmer sites. These findings confirm quantitatively the sensitivity of litter decomposition to temperature increases and demonstrate how climate change may constrain future soil carbon storage, an effect apparently not influenced by soil properties.read more
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Biochar application for the remediation of salt-affected soils: Challenges and opportunities
TL;DR: This review emphasizes that using biochar as an organic amendment for sustainable and profitable use of salt-affected soils would not be practicable as long as low-cost methods for the production of biochar are not devised.
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Review and analysis of strengths and weaknesses of agro-ecosystem models for simulating C and N fluxes.
Lorenzo Brilli,Luca Bechini,Marco Bindi,Marco Carozzi,D. Cavalli,Richard T. Conant,Chris Dorich,Luca Doro,Fiona Ehrhardt,Roberta Farina,Roberto Ferrise,Nuala Fitton,Rosa Francaviglia,Peter Grace,Ileana Iocola,Katja Klumpp,Joël Léonard,Raphaël Martin,Raia Silvia Massad,Sylvie Recous,Giovanna Seddaiu,Joanna Sharp,Pete Smith,Ward Smith,Jean-François Soussana,Gianni Bellocchi +25 more
TL;DR: Overall, it emerged that there is a possible impact of ill-defined pedo-climatic conditions in the unsatisfactory performance of the models, followed by limitations in the algorithms simulating the effects of management practices.
Journal ArticleDOI
Climate, carbon content, and soil texture control the independent formation and persistence of particulate and mineral-associated organic matter in soil
Michelle L. Haddix,Edward G. Gregorich,Bobbi L. Helgason,H. Henry Janzen,Benjamin H. Ellert,M. Francesca Cotrufo +5 more
TL;DR: In this article, the formation and persistence of newly-formed soil organic matter (SOM) is investigated in 10 agricultural sites in Canada, and the authors found that the formation of SOM and the degree to which it is protected from decomposition are important for determining the long-term persistence of SOM.
Journal ArticleDOI
A historical perspective on soil organic carbon in Mediterranean cropland (Spain, 1900-2008).
Eduardo Aguilera,Gloria I. Guzmán,Jorge Álvaro-Fuentes,Juan Infante-Amate,Roberto García-Ruiz,Guiomar Carranza-Gallego,David Soto,Manuel González de Molina +7 more
TL;DR: There was a continued decline in SOC during the 20th century, and cropland SOC levels in 2008 were 17% below their 1933 peak, and C inputs started recovering in the 1980s, mainly through increasing crop residue return.
Journal ArticleDOI
Long-term straw decomposition in agro-ecosystems described by a unified three-exponentiation equation with thermal time
TL;DR: The findings confirmed the long-term straw decomposition could be mainly driven by temperature and straw quality, and quantitatively predicted by thermal time with the three-exponent equation for a wide array of straw types at spatial and temporal scales in agro-ecosystems of China.
References
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Temperature sensitivity of soil carbon decomposition and feedbacks to climate change
TL;DR: This work has suggested that several environmental constraints obscure the intrinsic temperature sensitivity of substrate decomposition, causing lower observed ‘apparent’ temperature sensitivity, and these constraints may, themselves, be sensitive to climate.
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